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LETTERS 



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YOUNG STUDENT, 



FIRST STAGE OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION. 



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BOSTON: 


PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & MARVIN. 


PHILADELPHIA : 


FRENCH AND PERKINS. 


18 33.^ 


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Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1832, 

By Perkins &, Marvin", 
in the Clerk's Ofl&ce of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



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CONTENTS. 



Advertisement, . • . 
Introductory Preface, 



LETTER I. 

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE FORMATION OF 
CHARACTER. 

Introductory remarks — Importance of a right course in the 
first stage of study — Importance of a high standard of 
attainment — Decision of character — Self-control — 
Fixed principles of action— Influence of habit in the 
formation of character — Self-knowledge, 13 — 34 

LETTER II. 

HEALTH. 

Unhappy consequences of neglecting a due care of health — 
Practicability of preserving good health during a 
course of hard study — Food — Exercise — Mental relax- 
ation — Sleep — Early rising — Eye-sight — Use of tobac- 
co—Care of health a Christian duty, 35—50 



IV CONTENTS. 

LETTER III. 

INTELLECTUAL HABITS. 

Diligence and perseverance essential to high mental cul- 
ture — Mental symmetry — The habit of accurate and 
profound investigation — Due self-confidence — Attend- 
ing to every t) ing in its proper season — Order in 
study — Neatness and regularity in the studying apart- - 
ment— Success in study dependent more on the prepa- 
ration of the mind for it, and the mode of study, 
than on the amount of time devoted to it — Fixed and 
intense thought — Caution against being in a hurry, . 51 — 69 

LETTER IV. 

INTELLECTUAL HABITS- 

Study of Latin and Greek — Habits in the recitation room — 

Reading — Composition — Extemporaneous speaking, . 70—103 

LETTER V. 

MORAL HABITS. 

Caution against deferring high Christian attainments to a 
more convenient season — Daily duties of the closet — 
Stated and occasional seasons of fasting and prayer — 
Observance of tiie Sabbath — Cultivation of expansive 
Christian benevolence — Making study a religious duty 
— Efforts to promote a revival of religion, .... 109 — 136 



LETTER VI. 

MORAL HABITS. 

Levity of deportment — Value of time — Absence during terra- 
time — Neglect of prescribed exercises — Punctuality 
— Economy — Religious reading — Caution against be- 



CONTENTS. V 

ing proud of intellectual attainments — Courtesy — Cau- 
tions against losing the respect of associates — Visit- 
ing — Deportment at boarding-houses — Room-mate — 
Bosom friends — Obedience to laws — Deportment to- 
wards instructors — Doing good to younger students 
— Attending religious meetings, and making other 
. efforts to do good abroad, 137— 16a 

LETTER VII. 

COLLEGE LIFE. 

Caution against too great haste to enter college — Day of 
fasting and prayer before entering college — Ambition 
— Seeking popularity — Discountenancing insubordina- 
tion and immorality — College dissensions — Prejudice 
against hard students — Teaching school during the 
college course— Vacations, 164—174 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The history of this volume may be briefly told. Con- 
siderable acquaintance with young students led the author 
to believe, that such a book was greatly needed. As he 
knew of no person who had a work of this kind in view, 
he resolved to undertake one himself. He would barely 
remark, in regard to the letters which make up this vol- 
ume, that although they are addressed to a pious student 
who has just commenced an academical course, with the 
Christian ministry in view, they contain many sugges- 
tions which, he hopes, will not be found unprofitable to 
young students of any descriptioD. 



INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 



It gives me great pleasure to com- 
mend this little volume to that class of 
persons for whose benefit it is particu- 
larly intended. They will find it of 
great value, as embodying the results 
of recent experience, set forth in a 
spirit and manner at once inspiring re- 
spect and confidence, and awakening 
the best affections of the heart. It is 
the counsel of a friend and brother, 



X INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 

coming with all the authority of truth 
and kindness, and adapting itself, with 
remarkable simplicity and propriety, to 
the circumstances of the young stu- 
dent. He who might possibly be jeal- 
ous of the influence of more official 
admonition, may here find equal wis- 
dom in the correspondence of one who 
is himself willing to be regarded as a 
pupil, and who is full of the thoughts 
and dispositions which elevate such a 
relation. It deserves the attentive 
perusal of every student ; and who- 
ever shall shape himself by its instruc- 
tions, will find, at the period to which 
they lead him, that he has gained an 
object heretofore attained by few, a 
capacity for entering upon his profes- 



INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. XI 

sional studies, without the necessity of 
correcting the errors and mistakes of 
his preparatory education. 

The increase of pious young men 
which, by the divine blessing upon the 
means of religious instruction in our 
country, is annually brought into our 
literary institutions, renders this vol- 
ume particularly seasonable at the 
present time. The want, which pa- 
rents and teachers have begun to feel 
deeply, but which no one has yet at- 
tempted to supply, is here met. The 
work is entirely unobtrusive in its char- 
acter, constructed for the great purpose 
of utility ; and its benevolent and judi- 
cious author will, for that reason, sub- 
serve the interests of Christian educa- 



Xll INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 

tion more effectaally, than if he had 
written with larger pretensions and 
more ambitious aims. 

N. Lord. 

Dartmouth College, > 
Aug. 28, 1832. 5 



L.ETTERS TO A YOUNG STUDENT. 



LETTER I, 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE FORMATION OP 
CHARACTER. 

Introductory remarks — Importance of a right course in the first 
stage of study — Importance of a high standard of attainment — 
Decision of character — Self-control — Fixed principles of action — 
Influence of habit in the formation of character— Self-knowledge. 

My Dear Young Friend, — I am glad to 
learn, that you have commenced a course of clas- 
sical study, with the intention of acquiring a 
collegiate education. It would give me pleasure 
to know this, even if you had some secular pro- 
fession in view. For, in every sphere of action, 
knowledge is power. I can think of no station 
in which a liberal education would not afford 
you the means of exerting an influence over 
2 



14 LETTERS TO A 

your fellow men which you could not otherwise 
acquire. And this influence you would delight, 
I trust, to employ in promoting the kingdom of 
Him to whom, in the morning of your days, you 
have gladly given yourself away. But I look 
with peculiar pleasure on the step you have 
taken, from the intimation you have given me, 
that it is your present purpose to become a 
preacher of the gospel. When I turn my eyes 
eastward, and westward, and northward, and 
southward, and behold the desolations which sin 
has made in the world ; when I hear the loud 
call for preachers of the gospel from the desti- 
tute portions of our own land, and the still loud- 
er call from the wide spread regions of Moham- 
medanism, popery, and paganism ; I cannot but 
rejoice to see one after another setting himself to 
the work of preparation for that blesse-d minis- 
try which, under God, is to purify the whole 
world from its abominations, and cause joyful 
songs of praise to the Most High to ascend from 
*' every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and 
people." 

You have done well, I think, to fix your eye 
thus early on a profession for life. I do not say 
that this is best in every case. But that it is in 



YOUNG STUDENT. 15 

yours, I have no doubt. To wake up the hu- 
man mind to hitense effort, we must place before 
it some definite and commanding object of pur- 
suit. I have often seen young men in the 
academy and at college, who seemed to have no 
such object. They were there because their 
parents or guardians would have it so. And 
they went through the daily routine of study and 
recitation, because their instructors required it. 
If they could be said to have any definite object 
in view, it was only to make just such acquisi- 
tions as barely to escape the censure of those 
who were set over them. They made no higher 
attainments, because they had before them no 
great ultimate object of pursuit demanding large 
acquisitions. I do not say, that to place such 
an object before a youthful student, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that his future profession should 
be selected. Nor would I here undertake to 
say, at how early an age, or at what period in a 
course of study, a profession for life should be 
selected by one who has no disposition to enter 
the ministry. But I am convinced, that as soon, 
at least, as a pious student has passed through 
the period of mere boyhood, it is well for him, 
i^ he can, to decide the question whether he 



16 LETTERS TO A 

ought to become a preacher of the gospel. If 
he is to enter the ministry, the sooner his eye is 
fixed on it the better. Should he select this 
profession at the very earliest stage of his clas- 
sical studies, he will still be at liberty to change 
his purpose, should any subsequent develop- 
ments of character, or any unforeseen dispensa- 
tions of Providence, lead him or his friends to 
deem it best. And with this profession in view, 
he will have an object before his mind which can 
hardly fail to urge him onward in a course of 
intense and persevering effort. I recollect the 
substance of a remark made to me by a fellow 
student at the academy, who is now a minister of 
the gospel, in reference to certain severe intel- 
lectual efforts which he was called upon to make. 
*' I should almost shrink from them," said he, 
** were it not for my ultimate object, the gospel 
ministry." And I have no doubt that many who 
would else have been utterly discouraged by ill 
health, pecuniary embarrassments, and other 
appalling obstacles, have been aroused, by the 
hope of ultimately preaching the blessed gospel, 
to a steadiness of purpose, and an energy of 
effort, before which every difficulty has given 
way. It is well then, I repeat it, that, at the 



YOUNG STUDENT. 17 

?ery outset of your course, your eye is fixed on 
the gospel ministry. When you are ready to 
faint under the toils of the way ; when obstacles 
which seem almost insurmountable, rise up be- 
fore you ; it will cheer your heart, and nerve 
your arm, to think of the noble work in which 
you hope to engage. And when the syren sloth 
tempts you to self-indulgence, if ought can break 
her spell, it will be the delightful hope of being 
permitted to minister at the altar of God. This, 
at least, I can confidently say ; if such be not 
the effect of this hope upon you, your feelings in 
view of the ministry, are far from being such as 
you ought to possess. 

But while I rejoice, my dear young friend, at 
the step you have taken, and at the purpose you 
have formed to become a minister of the gospel, 
allow me to say, that I rejoice with trembling. 
Many who commenced a course of study with 
fond hopes and fair promise of future usefulness, 
have sadly disappointed the expectations of their 
friends. Some have brought deep disgrace on 
themselves and on the Christian name. And 
others, though they have not been utterly ruin- 
ed, have yet sadly declined from the ardor of 
pious feeling, and the consistency of Christian 
2* 



18 LETTERS TO A 

deportment, which once gladdened the hearts of 
their friends ; and have fallen far short of those 
high intellectual attainments which they might 
have made. When I think of these things, and 
remember that you are yet young in years, and 
young in Christian experience, — and that many 
dangers lie before you of which as yet you know 
but little ; I cannot but regard you with deep 
solicitude. You look, yourself, I doubt not, 
with some degree of anxiety on the course be- 
fore you. And yet I know you cannot fully 
realize the perils which will beset your path. 
Be assured, they are many, — they are fearful. I 
say not this to discourage you, but merely to 
excite you to that vigilance and effort, which, 
alone, with the blessing of God, will save you 
from ruin. Would that I could utter in the 
hearing of every student in the land, at every 
step in his course, what I now say to you : — 

YOU ARE IN DANGER J — LOOK WELL TO YOUR 
FOOl'STEPS, OR YOU FALL. 

Considerable acquaintance with young stu- 
dents, both while engaged in the prosecution of 
my own studies, and while employed in the busi- 
ness of instruction, has led me to believe that 
they are greatly in need of much definite, famiU 



YOUNG STUDENT, 19 

iar advice on a great variety of topics pertaining 
to their intellectual and moral improvement ; and 
that their wants in this respect are, in general, 
far from being fully met. General principles on 
all such topics, do, indeed, in various ways, 
come before them. But comparatively inexperi- 
enced as they are in the application of general 
principles to the business of life, they need to 
have the practical use of these principles clearly 
and particularly explained to them. Unacquaint- 
ed as they are with the ground over which they 
are to pass, they need not only to have the out- 
lines of their path described, but to become pos- 
sessed of those minute details in regard to it, 
without which they will for ever be liable to 
stumble, and perhaps to fall. I have no doubt 
that many might have been saved from ruin, and 
many others have been led to far higher attain- 
ments than they have made, had some judicious 
and faithful friend pointed out to them, from 
time to time, the dangers of the way, and given 
such minute advice as a student greatly needs. 
Instructers, I know, may do much — ought to 
do much — and much, indeed, is sometimes done 
by them, in the way of advice to their pupils 
on the various subjects concerned in the for- 



20 LETTERS TO A 

mation of character. But their labors are 
usually numerous and severe. Many pupils 
are ordinarily committed to the care of an 
individual. And without imputing any default 
in point of wisdom or faithfulness, instructers 
in general cannot do for their pupils, in the way 
of advice, what perhaps they would gladly do 
under other circumstances. Books are often ex- 
cellent substitutes for living instructers. But 
unhappily, so far as my knovvledge extends, the 
young student will look in vain to this source for 
what he specially needs. We have some excel- 
lent works designed for the instruction of young 
Christians, which have no special relation to the 
case of a student. We have, indeed, some 
works written with special reference to students, 
which are filled with counsels worthy of their 
most serious regard. But these books deal too 
exclusively in general principles. They are not 
sufficiently minute and practical to meet some of 
the most pressing wants of the young student. 
He needs a book to which he can go for an an- 
swer to just such queries as he would put to an 
intimate and judicious friend, in regard to the 
every day matters of his course of study. But 
to such a book, my dear young friend, much as 



YOUNG STUDENT. 21 

you need it, I cannot refer you. I am not aware 
that such a book exists. — I know not how I can 
render you a more important service, at this 
stage in your course of study, than by attempting 
to supply, in some measure, the place of such a 
book, by a series of plain and familiar letters- 
It will be my object in these letters, to' say, with 
great plainness and directness, those things 
which 1 suppose you specially to need. 1 shall 
not attempt to make out a complete system of 
counsels on any one general topic, but merely to 
give such hints under each as may seem to me 
peculiarly appropriate to your case. On some 
subjects I shall probably be very minute ; as a 
want of particularity has seemed to me one of 
the greatest defects in much of the advice given 
to the young. And I shall not be careful to 
avoid the repetition of an idea which I have 
before advanced, when it shall seem desirable to 
place it in a new point of view. Many of the 
things which T shall say, will be essentially the 
same that I was wont to say in the most familiar 
manner, to my own pupils, when engaged in the 
business of instruction ; and I shall say them to 
you in much the same way. In entering on this 
work, I have sought wisdom from on high ; and 



22 LETTERS TO A 

if, by what I write, I should be able essentially 
to aid you in pressing onward to the highest pos- 
sible attainments in knowledge and virtue, I 
shall feel that my efforts have been richly re- 
warded. 

It will be my object, in the present letter, to 
lay before you certain general considerations in 
regard to the formation of character. They will 
be such as you ought to understand well at the 
outset ; as they involve principles which lie at 
the foundation of all moral and intellectual ex- 
cellence. 

1. I would, as a preliminary step, call your 
attention to the importance of taking a right 

COURSE IN YOUR FIRST STAGE OF STUDY. If yOU 

are not duly sensible of this, I shall have little 
hope of your making the attainments which are 
fairly within your reach. If you feel, as many 
seem to do, that it matters little what course you 
pursue, or what habits you form at the academy, 
if you do but succeed in obtaining admission to 
college ; I shall have little expectation of your 
accomplishing much in your subsequent course 
of study, or in professional life. Some students 
seem to feel, that the time they spend at the 
academy is almost lost. But the truth is, it is, 



YOUNG STUDENT. 23 

in some respects, the most important part of a 
classical course. There, in the most appropriate 
sense of the expression, the foundation of an 
education is laid. There habits mental and 
moral are formed, which will be likely to go 
with the student into his college course, and 
even into the scenes of subsequent life. Adopt 
right principles, from right habits, in the inci- 
pient stage of your course of study ; and you 
give to your friends and instructors the best pos- 
sible pledge, that you will go on successfully to 
the end of your course, and be well prepared for 
usefulness in the world. Pursue a different 
course in the first stage of study ; and though it 
is not certain that no important change for the 
better will take place at a subsequent period, 
yet my own observation has confirmed what 
seems quite evident from the law.s of the human 
mind, that we should have no good reason to be 
sanguine in our hopes of such a change. On 
glancing over the history of those men with 
whom I was acquainted at the academy, and of 
whose subsequent course of study I have known 
something, I find that, in most instances, both at 
college and in the theological seminary, they 
have been very much the same men they were at 



24 LETTERS TO A 

the academy. Let me then deeply impress on 
your mind the importance of beginning aright. 
2. Adopt a high standard of attainment 
IN EVERY RESPECT. Aim at perfection in every 
thing you do. While all acknowledge the pro- 
priety of this maxim, very few reduce it to prac- 
tice. Most students, if they have any definite 
object of pursuit, aim at a comparatively low 
one. At the academy, they have nothing higher 
in view than just to get into college. In col- 
lege, they have no loftier aim than merely to 
perform the prescribed exercises, and to fill up 
most of their leisure time with something which 
may bear the name of reading. Through all 
their course of study, they are satisfied with doing 
about as much as others do. And when they 
go out from the scenes of academic life into the 
world, they pursue the same grovelling course. 
This is true in the case of some men, to whom 
God has given noble powers of mind. They 
seem either to be wholly unconscious of the 
treasure which their Maker has bestowed upon 
them, or else to be willing, like the slothful ser- 
vant in the parable, to " lay it up in a napkin." 
They are quite contented to creep in the dust, 
when they might be soaring among the stars. — 



YOUNG STUDENT. 25 

The Bible censures those who, in regard to 
moral attainments, " compare themselves among 
themselves." And, as every lawful act should 
be a matter of Christian duty, I see not why 
those who pursue this course in respect to intel- 
lectual attainments, are exempt from this cen- 
sure. Act, my dear young friend, in accordance 
with that precept of Holy Writ, " Whatsoever 
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 
Do not adopt as your standard either of intel- 
lectual or moral attainment, what others have 
attained. Aim at perfection in every thing. In 
religion, hold up before your mind that perfect 
model of excellence, the character of Jesus. In 
knowledge, aim at the highest possible attain- 
ments. Let your soul be fired with the noble 
purpose of making the most of yourself Thus 
high have been the aims of those illustrious men, 
who, from age to age have been the wonder and 
the glory of our race. Thus high let your aims 
be ; and though you may not, even then, accom- 
plish all you could wish to do, you will surely 
accomplish far more, than if you were content to 
aim at nothing more than mere mediocrity. I 
love that young man whose eye brightens with 
the noble purpose of doing for his own soul, for 
3 



26 LETTERS TO A 

the world, and for his God, the very utmost that 
he can possibly accompHsh. 

It is one thing, however, to form a noble gen- 
eral purpose, and quite another to carry it in 
practice into all the details of life. I have been 
much pleased with a little maxim of a very prac- 
tical cast, which embraces the general principle 
I have been endeavoring to enforce. It is 
this : — Make the most of every thing in its place. 
Let me urge you to govern yourself by this 
maxim. In whatever you engage, — whether it 
be conversation, reading, writing, study, recita- 
tion, or even needful bodily exercise, — make the 
most of it. See to it that you derive the greatest 
possible advantage from it. 

3. Aim to ACQUIRE true decision of char- 
acter. Without this, whatever may be your 
attainments in other respects, you will probably 
accomplish but little in the world. — In true de- 
cision of character three things are implied : — 

(1.) A habit of thorough and independent 
imiestigation in regard to the path of duty. You 
must learn to think for yourself And you must 
train your mind to think efficiently on anji 
doubtful question of duty which may come before 
it. — Men who have no decision of character, 



YOUNG STUDENT. 27 

usually keep close to respectable precedents. 
They do as others have done. And when pre- 
cedents fail, they seem either unable or afraid to 
search out the path of duty for themselves. 
They diligently inquire after the opinions of 
others. Others, in fact, think for them. And 
they usually follow, without much examination, 
the opinions of those for whom, on the whole, 
they have the greatest reverence. — But you will 
say, perhaps, * I am young and inexperienced. 
Shall I have no regard to the opinions of others, 
— even of those who are older and wiser than 
myself? And even at a more advanced age, 
must I feel that no deference is due to the opin- 
ions of my fellow men ? ' Such questions are 
very appropriate here ; for on the points to which 
they relate, many mistakes have been made. I 
think it easy, however, to draw the line of dis- 
tinction between a proper and a servile regard to 
the opinions of others. When you can com- 
mand a view of the whole ground on which you 
are to act, or when you can command as fair a 
view of it as others ; give little heed to what 
they may say, except so far as they can throw 
light on the field of action. Make the most of 
any information they can give. But their mere 



28 LETTERS TO A 

opinions^ though you ought to treat them courte- 
ously, should have very little influence over you. 
Your Maker did not intend, that the work which 
properly belongs to you as an intelligent, reason- 
ing being, should be transferred to another. But 
when, in the nature of the case, you cannot sur- 
vey the whole ground on which you are to act, 
you ought to give much deference to the mere 
opinions of those who, in this respect, occupy a 
much more favorable position than yourself. — 
To illustrate my meaning with reference to your 
own case. You have but just entered on a 
course of study. Of many things which lie 
before you, you are almost entirely ignorant. In 
regard to these things, of course, you are not 
competent to form opinions ; and must be gov- 
erned by the opinions of those who have gone 
before you. Cases similar in their general fea- 
tures, frequently occur in other walks of life ; and 
to these the same rule will apply. With this 
explanation of what I mean, I would say to you 
most earnestly, you cannot learn too early to 
think for yourself. 

(2.) It is essential to true decision of char- 
acter, that when, by thorough investigation, you 
have ascertained the path of duty, you should 



YOUNG STUDENT. 29 

resolve, at once, to act, and put that resolution 
in practice. Many men of timid spirit, when 
they have decided that they ought to take a par- 
ticular course, hesitate to act in accordance with 
this decision. There is many a '' Hon in the 
way." They tremble at the shaking of a leaf, 
and are ready to flee at the sight of their own 
shadows. The path is distinctly marked out 
before them ; but they hesitate to set forward. 
They query whether there may not possibly be 
some mistake in the course of reasoning which 
has led to the decision they have made. They 
review that course ; come to the same decision 
as before ; and yet fear to act. Put far from you 
such a timid irresolute spirit. 

(3.) To makeup a truly decided character, 
—when you have resolved to act, and have really 
begun to act, in accordance with the convictions 
of your judgment, persevere in this course, come 
what loill. The same pusillanimous spirit which 
men evince, when they hesitate to do at once 
what they have decided that they ought to do, 
often leads them, even when they have entered 
the path of duty, to turn back at the sight of 
difficulties or dangers. When once you have 
put your hand to a good work— -a work in which 
3* 



30 LETTERS TO A 

you are convinced that you ought to be engaged 
— never give it up, come what will. Come 
honor or dishonor, come life or death ; still main- 
tain, with unwavering purpose and fearless heart, 
the post of duty. 

To bring together, now, the three main con- 
stituents of true decision of character, I would 
say, ascertain, by thorough and independent ex- 
amination, 2chat the path of duty is ; enter 
promptly on that path ; and fearlessly persevere 
in it. — To say nothing of subsequent life, you 
will have daily occasion for decision of charac- 
ter in your course of study. Without special 
pains to acquire it, you w^ili be in great danger 
of falling into a kind of servile dependence on 
circumstances, and the opinions of those around 
you. Of a more insignificant character than 
one who is thus dependent, I can hardly con- 
ceive. — For a more extended discussion of this 
subject, I would refer you to Foster's Essay on 
Decision of Character, — a work which you can- 
not read too soon. I would that the great prin- 
ciples of that invaluable essay were engraven on 
the heart of every young man in Christendom. 

4. In close connection with the preceding 
subject, I wish to call your attention distinctly to 



YOUNG STUDENT. 31 

the importance of entire self-control. This 
is, indeed, implied in decision of character. 
But it is of such vast importance, that I deem it 
proper to give it a separate consideration. There 
are some men of sound judgment, and amiable 
feelings in many respects, who seem to have no 
control over themselves. They are just like the 
feather that floats listlessly on the changeful 
breeze. You can place no dependence on such 
men. They can place no dependence on them- 
selves. Be not like them, if you would gain 
the confidence of your fellow men, or accom- 
plish much in the world. Strive to gain a per- 
fect mastery over yourself Well has the Scrip- 
ture said, ** He that ruleth his spirit is better 
than he that taketh a city." After all that has 
been said about greatness of moral character, it 
consists more in this simple trait than in any 
other, — perhaps I might say, than in all others 
combined. Among heathen nations, there have 
been some illustrious exhibitions of this trait of 
character. In the Bible, it assumes the name of 
self-denial. And well might the burning blush 
of shame come over the cheek of the Christian 
who, with the holier principles and higher mo- 
tives of the gospel, comes short even of that 



32 LETTERS TO A 

degree of self-control which the benighted pagan 
has sometimes exhibited. 

5. Adopt, in all your affairs, fixed prin- 
ciples OF ACTION. Some men seem to be mere 
creatures of feeling. They act, habitually, 
rather from feeling than from conviction. In- 
deed, they hardly seem to have any fixed princi- 
ples. Let it be your care to adopt, in all your 
affairs, settled principles of action, by which you 
may be guided in that rigid self-control which I 
have recommended. And remember, while set- 
tling the principles on which you are to act in 
matters apparently of small moment, that a very 
great principle may be involved in a very little 
affair. To eat a single apple, is, in itself a very 
trifling thing. But in this was once involved 
a principle, which " brought death into the 
world and all our wo." 

6. Let me briefly call your attention to the 

INFLUENCE OF HABIT IN THE FORMATION OF 

CHARACTER. Of the powcr of habit, you are 
not ignorant. Men are, in some sense, crea- 
tures of habit. You will see this more and 
more clearly, the longer you live. Look well to 
the influence of habit over yourself While I 
would urge you to beware of a single wrong act, 



YOUNG STUDENT. 33 

I would say, look with peculiar dread on the 
repetition of any thing wrong. Be assured, that, 
with every such repetition, you are adding a new 
link to a chain in which your own soul may be 
bound forever. You have not forgotten the 
words of Him who knoweth what is in man ; — 
** Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the 
leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good 
that are accustomed to do evil." Strive to turn 
the power of habit to good account. Persevere 
in what you deem right, till it has become habit- 
ual ; and then it will cost you but little effort. 
As you build up the edifice of a good character, 
secure one stone after another by the fastenings 
of habit, and your work will go on rapidly and 
surely. I would say this with respect to the for- 
mation of your intellectual, as well as your mor- 
al character. 

7. Finally ; with a view to ascertain and 
correct what is wrong in yourself, endeavor 
thoroughly to analyze your own character. 
Do this in view of the principles to which I 
have now called your attention, and of all the 
great principles of mental and moral excellence. 
•** Know thyself," was a precept even of pagan 
wisdom ; and it is, in substance, sanctioned and 



34 LETTERS TO A YOUNG STUDENT. 

enforced by the word of God. Without a tho- 
rough examination of your own character, you 
will be likely to profit little by any thing I may 
suggest ; or, indeed, by any suggestions even of 
divine wisdom. Endeavor, then, to analyze 
your own character ; not only that you may 
think soberly of yourself, and as you ought to 
think, but that you may supply what is wanting, 
and rectify what is wrong. 



LETTER II. 



HEALTH. 



Unhappy consequences of neglecting a due care of health — Practicst- 
bllity of preserving good health during a course of hard study—* 
Food — Exercise— Mental relaxation— lSleep-A,Early rising— ^ye- 
sight-i-Use of tobacco— <!are of health a Christian duty. 

My Dear Young Friend, — ^Would you make 
the most of your course of study, and accom- 
plish the greatest possible amount of good in 
subsequent life, let me say to you now, you must 
learn to take care of your health. Such is the 
sympathy between the mind and the body, that 
when the one is diseased, the other must, in a 
greater or less degree, suffer with it. The high- 
est possible degree of mental vigor cannot be 
attained, without a heahhful state of the physi- 
cal system. 



36 LETTERS TO A 

But important as a due care of health is to the 
student, how often is it almost entirely neglected. 
And how sad are the consequences of such neg- 
lect. How many students are almost constantly 
complaining of headache, or faintness, or dizzi- 
ness, or unnatural lassitude, or some other bodily 
ailment, which quite unfits them for intense 
study, and which may be easily traced to an 
inexcusable neglect of the proper means of pre- 
serving health. How many are obliged by ill 
health, resulting unquestionably from their own 
neglect and imprudence, to be away from the 
scene of study during a considerable portion of 
nearly every year ; thus, perhaps, virtually dimin- 
ishing a course of seven years, to one of four or 
five. How many, from a similar cause, ere 
their course of study is ended, sink into an un- 
timely grave. And of those who live through 
this course, how many find, after they have 
entered on professional life, that they have im- 
planted in their own frames the seeds of disease 
and death ; and after a few years of compara- 
tively inefficient effort, lie down in the grave. 
How often has the church been called to weep 
over the premature loss, from the cause I have 
specified, of some of her most promising sons. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 37 

And how many who live a considerable number 
of years in the ministry, are, by early neglect of 
health, made invalids for life ; and accomplish, 
perhaps, not half what they might have done 
with a vigorous physical system. Nor is the 
evil, in the cases I have mentioned, confined to 
the partial or entire prostration of the physical 
and mental powers. Those nervous diseases to 
which students are peculiarly liable, are, to say 
the least, far from being favorable to the growth 
of piety. Producing, as they often do, great 
mental and physical lassitude, morbid melan- 
choly, and unnatural irritability, they cannot 
but be regarded as decidedly adverse to moral as 
well as intellectual improvement. Should you 
ever be so unhappy as to become a confirmed 
dyspeptic, you will feel more fully than you can 
now do, the truth of what I say. 

Now I am, of course, far from supposing, that 
the most judicious care of health will infallibly 
secure the student from disease and death. But 
I am fully convinced that very many — perhaps 
I may say, most cases of disease in our literary 
and theological institutions, may be traced to 
neglect or imprudence. The notion that a 
man cannot be a hard student, and yet enjoy 
4 



38 LETTERS TO A 

good health, is altogether erroneous. Hard study 
has the reputation of killing many who die rather 
of their own sloth and imprudence. If you will 
take pains to inform yourself about the best 
means of preserving health, and have energy 
and perseverance enough to use them faithfully ; 
you may hope to preserve your health unimpair- 
ed, even through a long course of hard study ; 
and to enter on professional life with a sound 
constitution. I would not, however, conceal the 
fact, that your health will be exposed to some 
peculiar dangers, arising from your sedentary 
habits, your seclusion from the open air, and 
from certain pernicious practices in which you 
will be strongly tempted to indulge. But from 
all these dangers you may shield yourself, by a 
proper attention to the means of preserving 
health. This, however, will require much ener- 
gy and self-denial ; but not more, I hope, than 
you will be willing to exercise. For you ought 
to regard it as a religious duty, so far as in you 
lies, to preserve unimpaired all the faculties, both 
of body and mind, which God has given you. I 
deem it highly important that your attention 
should be directed to this subject now ; and that, 
in the first stage of your studies, you should form 



YOUNG STUDENT. 39 

the habit of giving due attention to physical cul- 
ture. It will be my object, in this letter, to give 
you some hints in respect to the means of pre- 
serving health. I shall not enter very extensively 
into any of the topics I may introduce. For a 
more full and minute view of them, I would 
refer you to an excellent work by professor 
Hitchcock — the best of the kind with which I 
am acquainted — entitled, " Dyspepsy forestalled 
and resisted : or Lectures on Diet, Regimen, 
and Employment." 

1. You cannot hope to preserve your health 
unimpaired, without subjecting yourself to a 
strict regimen in regard to the quality and 

QUANTITY OP YOUR FOOD, AND THE MODE OP 

TAKING IT. Upon these points a laboring man 
may be very careless, with comparative impunity. 
But with your sedentary habits, you cannot be 
so. You may, for a while, go on without any 
restraint in these respects, and seem to incur no 
evil. But you will be gradually undermining 
your health, and sooner or later will have occa- 
sion to repent your folly. I cannot enter exten- 
sively into the subject of dietetics. But I will 
give you a few simple precepts touching the 



40 LETTERS TO A 

points I have mentioned, which, if faithfully 
observed, will, perhaps, be quite sufficient. 

(1.) First, then, I would say, confine yourself 
io plain food. Of all men in the world, seden- 
tary men are most tempted to indulge in luxuri- 
ous eating ; and yet of all men they are least 
able to bear it. With pies, and pastry of every 
kind, with rich gravies, and all sorts of rich and 
highly seasoned food, the less you have to do the 
better. Be assured, you cannot indulge in them 
without unfitting yourself for study, and injur- 
ing your health. And why should you wish to 
do so ? Would you so degrade yourself to a 
level with the brutes, as to make your happiness 
consist in eating and drinking 1 Besides, you 
will really derive quite as much pleasure, to say 
the least, from a plain sort of diet, as from 
viands of a more luxurious kind. — As to the 
particular kinds of plain food which will be 
found^most digestible, I need say but little. If 
you are properly temperate in other respects, you 
will probably be able to eat almost any sort of 
plain food without injury ; and if there should 
be any particular articles which would be inju- 
rious to you, your own experience will best dis- 
cover them. I cannot forbear, however, as bread 



YOUNG STUDENT. 41 

usually constitutes a considerable part of a stu- 
dent's food, to caution you against eating Iwt 
bread. The most eminent medical men have 
expressed the opinion, that newly baked bread 
is injurious to most persons, and especially to 
men of sedentary habits. You ought to eat no 
bread less than a day old. Especially should 
you avoid that which is warm from the oven. 

(2.) I would advise you to eat, ordinarily, of 
hut one dish at the same meal. I mean one dish 
with its usual accompaniments ; for instance, if 
you dine on baked meat, you may take with it 
potatoes and bread, — not to say gravy — for gra- 
vies you would almost always do well to let 
alone. My reasons for this advice are two. In 
the first place, though a change of food from 
meal to meal is desirable, the stomach undoubt- 
edly digests a single kind of food with more 
ease than a compound of various kinds. In the 
second place, you wiH be far less likely to eat to 
excess, if there be but one kind of food before 
you, "^ than if there were many. One of the 
strongest temptations to gluttony is a great vari- 
ety of dishes. 

(3.) Let the quantity of food taken at any one 
meal be moderate. More injury is probably done 
4* 



42 LETTERS TO A 

by excess in this respect than in almost any 
other. You need much less food than a labor- 
ing man. The precise quantity of food which 
you ought to take in the course of a day, I will 
not undertake to state, — for the plain reason, 
that I cannot. Probably most students ought 
not much, if at all, to exceed sixteen ounces of 
solid food. But this I can say, never eat till 
your food oppresses you. Stop when you first 
begin to feel satiety. Rise from the table — I 
do not say with as good an appetite as when you 
sat down — but with such an appetite that you 
could, with a good relish, eat still more than you 
have done. 

(4.) Eat sloioly. Almost all students eat 
much too rapidly. To eat slowly may seem to 
you of little consequence ; but the universal tes- 
timony of physicians is, that it is very important, 
especially if the organs of digestion be at all 
debilitated. It is essential to the rapid and per- 
fect digestion of food, that it be well masticated, 
and thoroughly saturated with saliva. You 
ought to be at least twenty minutes in taking 
each meal. 

(5.) I have said nothing about the kind of 
drink to be taken with your food. With ardent 



YOUNG STUDENT. 43 

spirits of all kinds, I take it for granted you 
have nothing to do. And I would advise you to 
dispense with stimulating drinks of every de- 
scription. Cold water, I am fully convinced, is 
the very best kind of liquid to be taken with 
food, or at any other time. If a faithful experi- 
ment, of six months' duration, does not convince 
you that it is better than tea, or coffee, or any 
other kind of drink, your experience will be far 
different from what mine has been. 

A faithful adherence to the ^ew simple rules I 
have given respecting food and drink, will con- 
vince greatly, I doubt not, to the preservation of 
your health, and the promotion of your happi- 
ness. I am confident, that if you greatly disre- 
gard these rules, you will one day rue it. And 
yet I have but little hope that you will scrupu- 
lously conform to them, unless you make it a 
point of Christian duty, a matter of self-denial, 
to do so. Appetite will be clamorous for indul- 
gence. And temptation inordinately to gratify 
it, will often occur. But be assured, my dear 
friend, if you would enjoy communion with God, 
or accomplish much in the world, you must have 
your appetite under strict control ; you must rise 
far, very far above the level of the mere sensual- 



44 LETTERS TO A 

ist. This is a subject on which you will be 
called upon to exercise what I strongly recom- 
mended in a former letter — rigid self-control. 

2. As one of the most important means of 
preserving your health, I would urge you to pur- 
sue a regular course of vigorous bodily exer- 
cise. Without this, every other means of pro- 
moting health will be likely to be ineffectual. 
The truth of this remark is confirmed by the 
testimony of all medical men, and the experi- 
ence of every student, — by the bitter experi- 
ence, I may add, of not a few who have attempt- 
ed to study with but little exercise. You ought 
not to spend less than two hours a day in exer- 
cise. It should be taken at regular times, and 
ought not to be very violent. It should be such, 
however, " that motion be communicated to 
every part susceptible of it : that the breast be 
dilated beyond the usual bounds of rest ; that 
all the muscles attain the utmost degree of their 
extension and contraction ; that strength, of 
course, be exerted, and enjoy all its develop- 
ments."* Agricultural labor is, perhaps, on the 
whole, the best kind of exercise. Sawing and 

* Journal of Health, No. 2. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 45 

splitting wood, and work at a carpenter's bench, 
I have found to have an excellent effect on my 
own health. Walking is a good kind of exer- 
cise ; but I doubt whether it is sufficient of 
itself. Something is needed to cause greater 
action of the muscles of the chest than this will 
produce. — The open air is undoubtedly the best 
place for exercise ; though a workshop is not a 
very objectionable place, provided it be well 
ventilated. — As to the time of taking exercise, 
let it be before rather than after a meal. But it 
ought not immediately to precede eating, — espe- 
cially if it be somewhat violent. There ought, in 
this case, to be at least fifteen or twenty minutes 
between exercise and eating. 

At some of the literary and theological semi- 
naries in our country, provision is made for sys- 
tematic exercise in a workshop or on a farm. 
If you have opportunity to take exercise in this 
way, avail yourself of it. But if not, be sure to 
get exercise in some way. Sometimes, doubt- 
less, when hard pressed by your studies, you 
will be tempted to neglect exercise for the sake 
of gaining time. But, be assured, you will find 
this a losing business in the end. Indeed you 
will hardly derive any immediate advantage from 



46 LETTERS TO A 

it. For, as T shall have occasion to say hereaf- 
ter, more at length, your success in study de- 
pends not so much on the time you spend in it, 
as on the preparation of your mind for it. And 
your mind will be likely to be but poorly pre- 
pared for study, when you neglect your usual 
exercise. Be assured, you will gain no time by 
this neglect. And if you give no heed to the 
suggestions I have made under this head, I am 
confident that you will ultimately lament it, when 
it may be too late to repair the injury you have 
done yourself. 

3. Do not forget that the mind needs fre- 
quent RELAXATION. Some youug men of excel- 
lent spirit, make an unhappy mistake on this 
subject. Feeling deeply the value of time, and 
unwilling that a single moment should be lost, 
they keep the mind in a state of continual ten- 
sion. Even during their hours of exercise, it is 
still unbent. A course like this, human nature 
cannot long endure. " Man," says Dr. Buchan, 
" is evidently not formed for continual thought 
more than for perpetual action, and would be as 
soon worn out by the one as the other." You 
cannot preserve a high degree of physical or 
mental vigor, without frequently unbending 



YOUNG STUDENT. 47 

your mind. Intense thinking on any subject 
ought not to be continued, without some inter- 
mission, more than three or four hours. A 
change of studies, from the languages to mathe- 
matics for instance, does in some measure re- 
lieve the mind. But there ought to be some 
seasons in which it is entirely unbent. Espe- 
cially should this be the case when you exercise. 
Entirely forget your studies then. Pursue no 
trains of thought which Avill cost you any effort. 
It may seem to you sometimes a loss of time to 
do so ; but, be assured, it will prove a great 
saving in the end. 

4. Give yourself sufficient time for sleep ; 
and let it be taken regularly, and in its proper 
season. Most students ought, I think, to spend 
as much as seven hours of the twenty-four in 
sleep ; and probably few need more than this. 
Long protracted night studies, and consequent 
partial deprivation of needful rest, are, I am 
persuaded, more injurious to health than almost 
any thing else. And I would advise you not 
only to take sufficient time for sleep, but to be 
regular in respect to the hour of retiring to rest. 
Beware of sitting up very late at night. You 



48 LETTERS TO A 

ought, I think, to be in bed soon after 9 o'clock 
in the summer, and J in the winter. 

5. Let me earnestly advise you to form the 
habit of EARLY RISING. To say nothing of the 
important advantages of this habit in other re- 
spects — advantages which strongly recommend 
it — it is, without doubt, highly conducive to 
good health. The morning air, as your own 
experience has doubtless taught you, is pecu- 
liarly invigorating. Fail not to try daily its 
exhilarating influence. To form the habit of so 
doing, may cost you a little trouble at first. But 
when this habit is formed, you will find it easy 
and delightful. 

6. I would call your attention distinctly to the 
importance of taking care of your eyes. 
Many young men, from imprudence in this 
respect, have been obliged either to suspend for 
a while, or entirely abandon their studies. As 
the best means of preserving your eyesight, — 
give yourself sufficient sleep ; be careful not to 
study by twilight ; use a green shade in the 
evening ; and let not the light thrown on your 
book by a candle or lamp, be so feeble as to 
require too much effort of the visual organs, or 
so strong as to dazzle your eyes. If, at any 



YOUNG STUDENT. 49 

time, you find your eyes inclining to weakness, 
use them less by candle-light than you have been 
wont to do, till they have regained their former 
strength. 

7. Let me seriously caution you, if you mean 
to preserve your health, against the habit of 
USING TOBACCO iu any way. This may seem to 
you a caution of little consequence. But I think 
far otherwise. Students are, I believe, very 
much addicted to this habit. While engaged in 
the instruction of an academy, I had occasion 
to lament the prevalence of it among my own 
pupils ; and felt it my duty to make efforts, 
which proved not altogether ineffectual, to con- 
vince them of its pernicious effects. — Says Dr. 
Delamater, one of the professors in the Medical 
School of Maine ; " I regard it as a settled gen- 
eral truth, that tobacco always injures, when 
used in any way or quantity." To this opinion 
Dr. Mussey, one of the most distinguished mem- 
bers of the medical profession in the country, 
has expressed his full assent. And with their 
opinion on this subject, that of medical men in 
general coincides. For the sake of your health 
then — to say nothing of the expensiveness and 
the disgusting appearance of the habit of using 
5 



50 LETTERS TO A YOUNG STUDENT. 

tobacco — I seriously counsel you not to use it in 
any way. 

8. To conclude this letter, I would urge you 
to make the use of the various means of pre- 
serving health which I have recommended, a 
MATTER OF Chris 1' AN DUTY. I have bcforo 
made a similar remark. But I wish again to 
call your attention distinctly to the importance 
of making it a part of your religion to take 
care of your health. Many young men, very 
conscientious in regard to other things, seem 
hardly to have any sense of accountability in 
respect t,o this. But, my dear young friend, you 
cannot wilfully neglect a due care of your health, 
without sinning against God. Remember this ; 
and ask help from on high to keep, in this mat- 
ter, " a conscience void of offence." 



LETTER III. 

INTELLECTUAL HABITS. 

Diligence and perseverance essential to high mental culture — Men- 
tal symmetry — The habit of accurate and profound investiga- 
tion — Due self-confidence — Attending to every thing in its pro- 
per season — Order in study — Neatness and regularity in the 
studying apartment— Success in study dependent more on the 
preparation of the mind for it, and the mode of study, than on 
the amount of time devoted to it — Fixed and intense thought — 
Caution against being in a hurry. 

My Dear Young Friend, — It may, with 
truth, be said, that many who pass through a 
course of classical study, seem to acquire little 
more than the mere name of an education. 
Such a result must, in most cases, be mainly 
ascribed to a want of industry and perseverance. 
I have no doubt, however, that it is sometimes 
owing, in a considerable degree, to a misdirec- 
tion of well meant, and it may be, energetic 



52 LETTERS TO A 

efforts. But for this, I am confident, a majority 
of students would make far higher attainments 
than they do. There is such a thing as labori- 
ously doing nothing ; and this is strikingly 
exemplified in the case of some students, who, it 
may be, in their own estimation, and in that of 
many others, have achieved wonders. You are 
exposed, then, in your course of mental culture, 
to a twofold danger — the danger both of a defi- 
ciency and of a misdirection of effort. In the 
hope both of exciting you to due exertion, and 
of doing something to give a right direction to 
your efforts, I would, in this letter, make some 
suggestions on a variety of topics which come 
under the general head of intellectual habits, 
using that expression in its broadest sense. 

]. Be assured that you will never make high 
attainments, without great diligence and 
PERSEVERANCE. If you are not willing to be a 
hard student through your whole course, stop 
where you are. Go not forward to waste your 
time, abuse your privileges, and bring reproach 
on your own name, and the precious name of 
Christ. It were well if all drones were ban- 
ished from academic halls. And pious drones ^ 
if I may use so paradoxical an expression, are 



YOUNG STUDENT. 53 

of all others, the most disgusting and reprehen- 
sible. Be not a drone. You cannot hope to 
unlock the rich treasures of science, and ac- 
quire the utmost possible intellectual power, 
without great and untiring effort. And why 
should it be otherwise ? It seems to result from 
the very constitution of things, that nothing 
valuable can be attained without much exertion. 
You see this to be the case rh regard to minor 
things ; and why should it not be so in respect 
to the lofty objects at which you aim ] Be wil- 
ling, then, as you toil up the hill of science, to 
task your powers to the very utmost. And grow 
not weary of such efforts. But persevere, and 
success will at length crown your labors. I have 
chosen to make these remarks here — although 
they obviously involve some moral considera- 
tions—because if you do not adopt the princi- 
ples which they recommend, I have no hope of 
your making high intellectual attainments. 

2. Aim, in your course of study, at perfect 
MENTAL SYMMETRY. This, many students utter- 
ly fail of attaining. Not a few seem to regard 
the mere exercise of the memory as the chief 
business of a course of education. They aim 
to make the mind a sort of reservoir of facts — a 



54 LETTERS TO A 

store-house of other men's ideas — rather than to 
give it the power of nice discrimination, of com- 
prehensive thought, of convincing argumenta- 
tion. They seem desirous rather to acquire 
knowledge from foreign sources, than to give 
their own minds the power of originating know- 
ledge. Now mere acquisition, which is chiefly 
the business of memory, is far from being the 
most important part of a course of study. In- 
deed it is of comparatively little importance, 
unless the work of the memory be connected 
with the vigorous exercise of the other powers 
of the mind. Knowledge, like food, must be 
digested, or it will do us comparatively little 
good. To use another illustration, the m.ind 
should not be like the lumber-house, where 
every thing lies untouched in just the state in 
which it was introduced ; but rather like the 
workshop of the artisan, where the raw material 
undergoes various mutations, and ultimately 
takes altogether new forms. Be not satisfied, 
then, with the mere discipline of the memory. 
Aim at a due development of all the mental 
powers. Keep this object distinctly before your 
mind, in all your severer studies, and all your 
liffhter readinir. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 55 

In connection with what I have just said, let 
me caution you against the habit of imdervalu- 
ing or neglecting particular branches of siiichj. 
The course of classical study marked out before 
you, has due reference to the culture of all the 
mental powers. Each branch of study has its 
peculiar use. None can be neglected without 
serious injury. And yet how often do students, 
from erroneous notions about education, almost 
entirely neglect particular studies. Sometimes 
a particular branch of study is neglected, be- 
cause it furnishes no new facts, or seems to be 
of little practical utihty. And yet it may be 
indispensably necessary to the proportionate 
development of some of the mental faculties. 
** I am weary," says one, " of these long demon- 
strations in conic sections. Of what possible 
practical use can they be ? Surely I shall never 
wish to discourse from the pulpit about the prop- 
erties of a cone." True, you will not. But 
in your preparation for the pulpit, you will great- 
ly need that fixedness of thought, for which the 
study of conic sections and kindred branches of 
knowledge, tends, above almost every thing else, 
to fit you. — To every student who would have 
the powers of his mind developed in due propor- 



56 LETTERS TO A 

tion, I would say most earnestly, neglect no 
study marked out in your course, because it may 
not happen to suit your taste so well as some 
others, or because it may not seem to you of 
much practical utility. It has its use neverthe- 
less. And you cannot neglect it with impunity. 
Those who prescribe your course of study, are, 
indeed, liable to err in respect to the portion of 
time assigned to a particular branch of know- 
ledge. But you have reason to rely on their 
judgment in this matter, rather than your own ; 
as they have means of forming a correct opinion 
about it which you cannot possess. 

3. Strive to acquire the habit of accurate 

AND PROFOUND INVESTIGATION. I Can think of 

no mental habit of more importance than this. 
It will be of vast consequence to you in your 
course of study. It will prevent that superficial 
mode of study into which very many fall ; and 
will conduce to extensive and valuable attain- 
ments, in every branch of knowledge to which 
you attend. And on this, more than on almost 
any other intellectual habit, will your influence 
in future life depend. Look around you on the 
various classes of men within the sphere of your 
observation. Who are they who exert the most 



YOUNG STUDENT. 57 

powerful influence on the community, — whose 
opinions are treated with the most respect, and 
are, indeed, really worthy of it? They are the 
men who have formed the habit of strict and 
thorough investigation ; who are not satisfied 
with looking at the mere surface of things, but 
push their inquiries to the utmost limits of human 
knowledge. Strive, then, to become an accu- 
rate and profound thinker. And the more you 
exercise your mind in this way, the greater pow- 
er of exact and deep investigation it will ac- 
quire. For the mental faculties, like those of 
the physical system, gain strength by exercise. 
In regard to the best means of acquiring that 
habit of thorough investigation which I have so 
strongly recommended, I would here offer a few 
definite counsels; and shall probably have occa- 
sion, in the course of these letters, to make 
some further remarks which will apply to this 
topic. Indeed it is closely connected with 
almost every thing which relates to mental cul- 
ture. 

(I.) Pursue thoroughly every study which 
you undertake. Leave nothing — not a single 
lesson — not even the smallest part of a lesson, 
till you fully understand it. Many students of 



58 LETTERS TO A 

indolent habits, are prone to pass over the more 
difficult points in every study. Of this perni- 
cious pr ctice bevi'are. For these are the very 
points which most severely task the mind in the 
work of investigation ; and, of course, give it 
skill in this work. I know there are, in every 
science, certain limits to human knowledge. It 
is the part of wisdom to ascertain what these 
limits are; and, when theyure once ascertained, 
not to waste time and strength in vain attempts 
to overpass them. But within these limits, you 
cannot push your inquiries too extensively. Let 
it be your fixed purpose, when you sit down to 
get a lesson, that you will get it thoroughly. 
And seize with avidity even on the more diffi- 
cult points it presents. For independently of 
the immediate object of acquiring a more per- 
fect understanding of the subject before you, you 
will be taking one of the most effectual meas- 
ures to form the habit of strict and profound 
investigation. 

(2.) Let it, so far as possible, be a maxim 
with you, to take no opinion on mere trust. 
This, so far as your studies are concerned, 
would seem to be implied in what I have just 
said. And I have said essentially the same 



YOUNG STUDENT. 59 

thing in relation to practical matters, in a for- 
mer letter. But I wish, in this connection, again 
to present it distinctly before your mind. If you 
would form the habit of thorough investigation, 
do not accustom yourself to adopt the opinions 
of any one, without seeing good reasons for 
them. I say this with respect to your course of 
study, as well as to your treatment of what may 
come before your mind in other ways. Believe 
me, very much depends on the frequent and 
proper use of that little word — lohy 1 

(3.) Form the habit, in the study of every 
book to which you may attend, of pushi7ig your 
inquiries, when circumstances and the nature of 
the case will admit of it, farllier than the author 
has gone. This, in some cases, cannot well be 
done. An author sometimes seems either to 
exhaust his subject, or, at least, to reach the 
utmost limits of profitable investigation. But 
this is seldom the case. I would caution you 
against the feeling which so many students 
cherish, that all they have to do is to understand 
fully what is said in the authors they read. Let 
it be )^our care, in every study, not merely to 
acquire a thorough knowledge of the boohs you 
peruse, but of the subjects of which they treat. 



60 LETTERS TO A 

To do this, you must often push your researches 
farther than these books will carry you. Be 
not afraid to do so. If you would form the habit 
of thorough investigation, you must not be con- 
tent to be a servile plodder in the track of others. 
How unhappy is the practical error which many 
commit in respect to this subject. They seem 
quite contented to be mere children in leading- 
strings. Accustomed to give up their minds 
unreservedly to the control of every author they 
read, and never disposed to advance a step far- 
ther than he has gone, they seem almost entirely 
incapable of prosecuting any original course of 
investigation. Beware of the error of these 
men. 

(4.) I would advise you to form the habit of 
engaging often, independently of the prescribed 
exercises in your course of study, in Jixed and 
profound thought on some interesting subject, 
with the object of acquiring greater skill in the 
work of thorough investigation. It would be 
well if you should make this a daily business. 
Select some interesting subject ; abstract your 
mind from every thing else ; fasten your thoughts 
on this ; survey it in all its aspects ; trace out all 
its relations; analyze it thoroughly. To say 



YOUNG STUDENT. (Jl 

nothing of the more perfect knowledge you may 
thus acquire of many important subjects, you 
will be making rapid improvement in the power 
of accurate and profound investigation. 

It may seem to you, that at the present stage 
in your course of study, it is too early to put in 
practice some of the suggestions I have made in 
respect to the habit of investigation. But be 
assured, you cannot too soon adopt correct prin- 
ciples, and enter on a right course of action, on 
this subject. Let me forewarn you, however, 
that you will not succeed in putting in practice 
what I have recommended, without much effort. 
Every man is, in a greater or less degree, natu- 
rally indolent. Your mind will often shrink 
from the intense thought which will be necessary 
in the course I have marked out. But put it to 
the task. And though the way may seem rough 
and forbidding at first, it will doubtless grow 
more smooth and delightful, at every step of 
your progress. 

4. Let me advise you to cherish a due con- 
fidence IN YOUR own powers. Students some- 
times exhibit a distrust of their own abilities, 
which may well be termed pusillanimity. For 
some branches of knowledge to which their at- 
6 



63 LETTERS TO A 

tention is called, they say they have no talents ; 
and so they either neglect them wholly, or pass 
over them in the most superficial manner. And 
they treat in the same way- the most difficult 
parts of those studies, to which, in the main, they 
may feel themselves competent. Now I would 
not encourage vanity. Nor would I affirm, that 
all minds are equally well adapted to every intel- 
lectual pursuit. Minds doubtless differ in re- 
spect to the facility with which they acquire 
knowledge ; and, to the same mind, some depart- 
ments of science may be more difficult than 
others. But I do believe, that every student, of 
ordinary powers of mind, may, with sufficient 
pains-taking, master every branch of knowledge 
which enters into his course of study. Some of 
the most distinguished votaries of science that 
the world has ever seen, have owed their emi- 
nence rather to patient and untiring industry, 
than to any great superiority of their native 
powers. Say not, then, of mathematical study, 
I have no talents for it ; or of the study of lan- 
guages, my mind is not adapted to it. Beware, 
when you meet with difficulties in the study of 
any science, of pusillanimously shrinking from 
them, under the impression that you cannot sur- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 63 

mount them. Let your maxim be, " Labor 
omnia vincit," Feel that you can accomplish 
any thing you undertake. As you sit down to 
eV'ery lesson, say to yourself — whatever difficul- 
ties there may be in it, / can get it, and I will. 
5. Give due attention to every thing which 
belongs to your prescribed course of study, in 
ITS PROPER SEASON. Many students, from vari- 
ous causes, neglect, either wholly or partially, 
particular studies or portions of studies, at the 
proper time for attending to them, with the in- 
tention of making amends for this neglect at 
some future period. Now if ill health, or some 
other cause beyond your control, compel you to 
do so, you must submit to it. But a calamity 
you will surely find it to be. For every day of 
your course of study has its appropriate work. 
And if you neglect the work of but a single day, 
it will be difficult to find time for it afterwards. 
You will be reduced to the necessity of either 
omitting it wholly, or crowding the business of 
two days into one. Of these two courses, you 
will be strongly tempted to take the former ; but 
if you choose the latter, something will be likely 
to be superficially done. Besides, there is such 
a connection between the various parts of a 



64 LETTERS TO A 

course of study, that each one is a valuable, and, 
in many cases, a very important preparation for 
that which succeeds it. Neglect any study, 
then, or a part of a study, in its proper season, 
and you deprive yourself of important facilities 
for prosecuting subsequent studies. 

6. Let me advise you carefully to observe 
ORDER IN STUDY. Have a fixed plan of study 
for every day. For every thing, mark out a par- 
ticular time. And adhere to your plan as 
strictly as circumstances will permit. Some- 
times, indeed, you will be compelled to deviate 
from it. But if you have proper decision of 
character, this will not be very frequently the 
case. The advantages of a plan of study are very 
great. Without one, you will be liable often to 
give a disproportionate attention to some studies, 
and wholly or partially to neglect others ; you 
will frequently waste considerable time in per- 
plexing deliberation about what you shall do 
next ; and you will probably be sometimes ha- 
rassed by unpleasant doubts whether you are 
actually making the most judicious appropriation 
of your time. As soon, then, as you ascertain 
what are to be the studies of a term, settle in 
your own mind your plan of study, and commit 



YOUNG STUDENT. 65 

it to writing. Mark out the time to be spent in 
study, and determine how every hour shall be 
filled up. And I very much mistake, if you do 
not find such a course highly conducive to intel- 
lectual improvement. 

7. Keep every thing in your room in a 

STATE OF neatness AND REGULARITY. This 

may seem to you a small matter. But it is far 
from being so. External objects, you well 
know, have much influence on the mind. And 
I can hardly doubt that most persons, when 
every thing around them is in a state of neatness 
and order, will study to greater advantage, than 
when every thing is in an unseemly and confus- 
ed state. But not to insist on this, if you keep 
your books, and papers, and furniture, in a state 
of disorder, much loss of time will inevitably be 
occasioned. You will spend, in looking after 
articles which you want, and know not where 
to find, far more time than it would take to keep 
every thing as it should be. Let your rule, then, 
be, a place for every thing, and every thing in 
its place. 

8. I would remind you, that your success in 

STUDY DEPENDS FAR LESS ON THE AMOUNT OF 
TIME YOU DEVOTE TO IT, THAN ON THE PREPAR- 
6* 



66 I.ETTERS TO A 

ATION OF YOUR MIND FOR IT, AND THE MANNER 

IN WHICH YOU STUDY. Many Students seem 
either not to know this, or else to be habitually 
forgetful of it. It appears to be their object to 
spend as many hours as possible over their 
books ; while they manifest little solicitude about 
a preparation for study, or the manner in which 
they apply their minds to it. In some instances, 
too large a portion of the day is spent in study. 
Six or eight hours are, probably, quite as many 
as most students can spend to advantage in the 
most intense kind of study. Observe, I speak 
now of the severest kind of application. To the 
amount of time I have specified, some addition 
may be made in the way of reading, or a lighter 
kind of study. When I hear students tell of 
studying fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen hours a 
day, I either suppose that they know not what 
study is, or expect that they will speedily bring 
themselves to the grave. The truth is, six hours 
spent as they ought to be, are wortli more to the 
student than twice that amount of time spent in 
the way in which many are wont — sometimes 
with great self-complacency— to spend their 
study hours. 

9. Of a due preparation for study, I need not 



YOUNG STUDENT. (57 

speak at large here. T would refer you to what 
I have said in my second letter. The best pre- 
paration for mental effort is, by exercise and 
otherwise, to keep the physical system in a vigo- 
rous state. But in regard to the mode of study, 
I would say, aim to acquire the habit of applying 
yourself to the subject before you, with fixed 
AND INTENSE THOUGHT. Remember that sitting 
with a book before you and gazing round the 
room, is not study. Dozing over a book is not 
study. Those oft intermitted efforts which 
some make, hardly merit the name of study. 
Would you deserve to be called a student, learn 
to abstract your mind from every thing else, and 
fasten it on the subject before you. If it wan- 
der, bring it back, and chain it to the subject 
again. " If there be any thing that can be call- 
ed genius," says Dr. Reid, " in matters of mere 
judgment and reasoning, it seems to consist 
chiefly in being able to give that attention to the 
subject, which keeps it steady in the mind, till 
we can survey it accurately on all sides." Your 
intellectual attainments will certainly depend 
very much on this. I should rejoice to see in 
you something like the habit of the celebrated 
mathematician, Archimedes, who was intent on 



68 LETTERS TO A 

the solution of a mathematical problem, while a 
hostile array were taking possession of the city of 
his residence. Acquire the habit of becoming 
wholly absorbed in study, of concentrating upon 
it the whole strength of your intellect ; and you 
will accomplish more in one hour, than you 
could otherwise do in two. 

10. One other suggestion in regard to your 
habits of study, will close this letter. Never 
ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE IN A HURRY. En- 
deavor to do every thing in its proper season, so 
that you may never be troubled with deferred 
labors. And take no more into your plan of 
study, than you may hope, with due effort, to 
perform. You may thus avoid some of the 
strongest temptations to the evil of which I speak. 
But how great soever the pressure of study, be 
not in a hurry. Students sometimes allow them- 
selves to be well-nigh distracted by a multipli- 
city of engagements, or by the claims of some one 
severe and formidable task. They apply them- 
selves to study, with an agitation of spirit, and 
a kind of hurried effort, which are by no means 
favorable to rapid acquisition. Always sit down 
to study with a determination to do your utmost, 
but with a calm, collected state of mind. And 



YOUNG STUDENT. (J9 

be assured, you will accomplish far more than 
you could do in the hurrying way in which stu- 
dents sometimes set themselves to work. 



LETTER IV. 



INTELLECTUAL HABITS. 



Study of Latin and Greek — Habits jn the recitation room — Reading — 
Composition — Extemporaneous speaking. 

My Dear Young Friend, — I propose, in 
this letter, to make some further suggestions on 
the same general topic to which 1 directed your 
attention in my last. You are not, I presume, 
weary of this topic. For you are aware, that you 
are now laying the foundation of your intellec- 
tual character. And you will ponder seriously, 
I doubt not, the suggestions I have yet to offer. 

1. I have some things to say in regard to the 
STUDY OF Latin and Greek ; as this will be 
your principal business 'while at the academy, 
and will constitute no small part of your course 
of study at college. 



LETTERS TO A YOUNG STUDENT. 71 

(1.) Cherish a deep sense of \is importance. 
The utihty of classical studies some have doubt- 
ed. But a very large majority of educated men 
have no such doubts. Such studies are valu- 
able on account of the discipline they give to the 
mind. Translation from any foreign language 
into our vernacular tongue, affords a most 
excellent mental discipline. And few languages 
task the mind so severely in this respect, as the 
Latin and Greek. " 1 have sometimes," says 
Professor Stuart, in speaking of translating from 
a foreign language, "spent whole hours, on even 
a preposition or an adverb ; but I am very cer- 
tain, that few of my hours have been spent to 
better purpose, in their influence over the habits 
of the mind." The same distinguished philologist 
remarks, " I must say from the fullest convic- 
tion, that the modicum of improvement which I 
have made, is to be principally attributed to the 
study of sacred classics; and in connection with 
these, the classics of Greece and Rome."* The 
study of the Latin and Greek classics is impor- 
tant, also, because it is very conducive to precis- 
ion, facility, and elegance of expression, in our 

* Quarterly Journal of the American Education Soci- 
ety, No. 5. 



72 LETTERS TO A 

own language. A very large number of words 
in that language, are, you know, of Latin and 
Greek origin. How, then, can it be fully under- 
stood, and the greatest possible skill in the use 
of it acquired, without a knowledge of Latin and 
Greek 1 Besides, were no words in our lan- 
guage of Latin or Greek derivation, the exer- 
cise of expressing in English the thoughts which 
we find in classical authors, would infallibly im- 
prove our knowledge of that language. An ad- 
ditional reason for the study of the ancient 
classics, is found in the fact that they present 
before us some of the best models of fine writing 
which the world has ever seen. To one who 
has his eye fixed on the ministry, it is peculiarly 
important to become acquainted with the Latin 
and Greek languages. In Greek, the New 
Testament is written ; and in Latin, there are 
rich treasures of theological knowledge, which 
are not now, and perhaps never will be, acces- 
sible to the mere English reader. I have thus 
glanced at the principal reasons for studying the 
ancient classics, because some even of those who 
study them, seem to have no just sense of their 
value ; and because I wish to have you prepared 
to engage heartily in the work of thorough classi- 
cal study. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 73 

(2.) Determine to be thorough in the study 
of Latin and Greek. This precept is implied in 
what I have before said about thorough study. 
But I wish to repeat it here, because I am con- 
vinced, that without the strict observance of it, 
comparatively little advantage will be derived 
from the study of the ancient classics. To prove 
this, I hardly need to use a single argument. 
But obvious as it is, many study Latin and 
Greek very superficially. I cannot forbear here 
to make one or two extracts from an article re- 
cently published by Professor Stuart, on the 
** Study of the Greek Language." They will 
confirm what I have just said about the super- 
ficial study of the ancient languages, so far, at 
least, as the Greek is concerned ; and will show 
you, in respect to that language, some of the sad 
consequences of such a mode of study. 

Says Professor Stuart, in allusion to those 
who enter the Theological Seminary with which 
he is connected ; " To speak plainly, then, and 
without reserve, I must say, that there are some 
of the young men that come here, who, \^ fully 
and duly examined in the Greek Testament in 
order to enter, must inevitably be rejected. All 
this, too, when they come with a diploma in 
7 



74 LETTERS TO A 

their hand. There are not a few who come 
here, that could not decline a verb, or noun, or 
adjective, in the Greek language, with any toler- 
able degree of certainty -that they were in the 
right throughout. And this is true not only of 
all the contracted and more difficult forms, but 
even of rf fwvuu and ?/ cfdla^ which belong to 
the first rudiments of the first declension. Every 
year I am obliged to put my pupils on the first 
elements of Greek Grammar, before I can ad- 
vance them to the study of the New Testament. 
It is impossible for me to proceed a step in my 
proper business, without so doing. All of them, 
indeed, do not equally need this discipline. A 
few might dispense with it. But as a class, the 
necessity of their going through with this exer- 
cise, is past all question.— Of course there is a 
great loss of time to the student, as to the ap- 
propriate business of our Seminary. I regret this 
deeply ; but I cannot help it. One cannot ad- 
vance to higher acquisitions, before he under- 
stands elementary principles ; and if he has not 
learned these, then he must learn them." 

Again, he says, " For myself, if I may be 
permitted to say it, I would say, my heart has 
often ached for not a few of the excellent young 



YOUNG STUDENT. 75 

men assembled in my lecture room. They come 
here after going through the academy and 
through college ; and with a diploma in their 
hand, and some of them, also, having even been 
adorned with other college laurels ; they expect 
to find no difficulty in entering directly upon the 
course of study here, and reaping all the advan- 
tages from exegetical lectures which these lec- 
tures can be adapted to bestow. Alas, for their 
gregious disappointment ! They are called on 
to decline ->] ftovau; which they do with a falter- 
ing tongue. They are not certain whether the 
genitive is fiovarjg or fxovaug^ much less can they 
give the reason why it is the former rather than 
the latter. When put to decline contracted and 
peculiar forms, they are at an absolute stand, and 
they can proceed with scarcely any more cer- 
tainty that they are in the right, than if they 
were put to declining Sanscrit. What now 
can be done? I am obliged to say, 'Gentle- 
men, I regret that you find yourselves in such 
circumstances. It is not my business to inquire 
how tliis has been brought about, whether by 
your own fault, or by that of your instructors, or 
by both unitedly. Be this as it may, you cannot 
translate and comment on New Testament 



76 LETTERS TO A 

Greek, while you are unable to distinguish the 
elementary forms of its declensions. I am truly 
sorry for your disappointment ; and I also re- 
gret, that you are obliged as it were to lose your 
time, for the present, in merely elementary and 
preparatory studies. But what can be done? 
Advance you cannot, without a knowledge of the 
elements. It is utterly impossible. There is no 
way left but to begin de novo ; to study your 
grammar as you would at the outset ; and in 
this manner to make what little progress you 
can."* 

Some of the allusions to the Greek language, 
in these remarks of Professor Stuart, you may 
not fully understand, as you have not commenc- 
ed the study of that language. But the general 
scope of all I have quoted, you doubtless find 
quite intelligible. Now the young men who 
enter the theological seminary at Andover, come, 
as Professor Stuart states, from " all the colleges 
in New England," and " a considerable number 
out of it." And there is no reason to believe, 
that they are, in general, more deficient in Greek, 
than those who go to other theological institu- 

* Biblical Repository, No. 6, pp. 299, 304. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 77 

tions; or, I may add, than the most of those 
who enter secular professions. Is there not 
evidence, then, that, so far as Greek is concern- 
ed, many study the ancient languages very su- 
perficially. Of Latin, students, in general, know 
somewhat more than of Greek. But even in 
Latin, most of them are very deficient. — In the 
quotations I have made from Professor Stuart, 
you have a striking picture of the embarrass- 
ments which the want of a thorough knowledge 
of Greek, throws in the way of the theological 
student. Deficiency in the knowledge of Latin, 
if not an equal evil, is certainly a serious one, in 
a course of theological study. — As your eye is 
fixed on the gospel ministry, I have directed 
your attention particularly to the unhappy conse- 
quences, in respect to theological study, of a 
superficial mode of studying Latin and Greek. 
But whatever view you take of its eflfects, such 
a mode of study is liable to the strongest objec- 
tions. Let it be your fixed purpose, then, to be 
thorough in the study of the ancient languages. 
Adhere to this purpose through your whole clas- 
sical course. 

(3.) In the study both of Latin and Greek, 
endeavor to become perfectly acquainted with 
7* 



78 LETTERS TO A 

the grammar. It has been well said, that, " if 
the grammar be the first book put into the learn- 
er's hands, it should also be the last to leave 
them." I know not how a thorough knowledge 
of any dead language can be acquired, except 
by thorough grammatical study. Many students, 
as I have had occasion to observe, fail here. 
They do, indeed, at the outset, go through the 
grammar — that is, they go through those por- 
tions which are printed in " large type." And 
they repeat this process, perhaps, two or three 
times in their subsequent course of study. But 
those very important matters printed in " small 
type" — that is, the minutiae of grammar, the 
exceptions to general rules — they neglect at 
first, and almost entirely neglect forever after- 
wards. They do, indeed, sometimes recur to 
them in reading the classics, but so seldom, that 
they never become familiar with them. Is it 
strange that such students should make but a 
sorry figure in the lecture room of the theologi- 
cal professor, or that they should almost entirely 
fail of accomplishing the great objects for which 
a course of classical study is pursued ? Let it 
be your purpose, as you commence the study 
both of Latin and Greek, to become perfectly 



YOUNG STUDENT. 79 

familiar with the grammar — the ichole grammar. 
Be not satisfied till yoa have it " at your tongue's 
end." I would by no means advise you to com- 
mit the whole to memory at first. This should 
be done gradually. I have thought it best for 
students to learn, at the outset, only a small part 
of the grammar — the mere elementary princi- 
ples and forms of the language they are acquir- 
ing. As they advance, they should aim grad- 
ually to increase their grammatical knowledge. 
I would advise you, however, within a few months 
after you begin to read a language, to read over 
attentively — I would not say commit to memory 
— the whole grammar. In so doing, you will 
not only fix more securely in the memory what 
you have already learned, and learn some new 
things, but you will greatly increase the facility 
with which you can turn to any rule or illustra- 
tion which you may need to resolve a grammati- 
cal difficulty. ** It is a great part of learning," 
as has been well remarked, " to know where 
learning may be found." — I would s^ongly re- 
commend it to you to learn the grammar very 
much in a practical way. You will, in this way, 
acquire a knowledge of grammatical minutifE 
much more rapidly, and with far greater ease, 



80 LETTERS TO A 

than by merely committing to memory abstract 
rules. In translating Latin and Greek, pass 
over no word without acquiring a perfect know- 
ledge of all its forms, and of every grammatical 
principle which relates to it. I would . advise 
you, however, gradually to commit to memory all 
the definitions, and rules, and exceptions in your 
grammar, in the order in which they stand there. 
They are probably well classified there ; and it 
is desirable that all our knowledge should be laid 
up in the memory in a classified state. You 
ought to have the whole grammar thus commit- 
ted to memory before you enter college. You 
will have enough to do there in the application 
of grammatical principles, and in making those 
higher attainments in classical study, at which 
you ought to aim. I know you may tell me, that 
few students accomplish what I here enjoin on 
you. But I know, also, that few students ac- 
complish so much as they might do. And let 
me again remind you, that your standard of 
attainment is not Vv'hat oth ts have done, but the 
very utmost that you can possibly do. 

(4.) The secret of learning a language rapid- 
ly and well, consists very much in reviewing. 
You ought not, at the present stage of your 



YOUNG STUDENT. 81 

studies, to enter the recitation room without 
having read over your lesson at least three times. 
I would suggest a course in preparing your les- 
son for recitation, somewhat like the following ; 
with no intention, however, of confining you to 
it, should you find any other better. Let it be 
your object in looking over your lesson for the 
first time, to ascertain the literal meaning of 
every word, and to understand perfectly its 
etymology and syntax. In the second reading, 
aim to fix more firmly in your mind what you 
acquired in the first ; correcting, of course, any 
mistakes you may have made. And let the 
object of the third reading be to give the utmost 
possible elegance to your translation. I would 
advise you, also, to review your lesson after you 
leave the recitation room, with the view of fixing 
in your mind any new ideas in regard to it, 
which you may have received from your instruct- 
€r or class-mates. And you will find it of incal- 
culable advantage to make very frequent reviews 
of your classical studies — at the end of the week, 
the month, the term, and at other times. You 
need not be afraid of reviewing too much. Some 
of the most eminent linguists have ascribed their 



82 LETTERS TO A 

own success very much to this practice, and 
have earnestly recommended it to others. 

(5.) Aim at the utmost possible elegance in 
your style of translatiim. I have already en- 
joined this incidentally ; but I wish still farther 
to insist upon it. IVlany students, in translating^ 
from Latin and Greek, adhere most awkwardly to 
the idiom of the language they are construing. 
Aim, in translating, to give the sense of your 
author in the English idiom. In employing this 
idiom, however, and in aiming at elegance, be 
careful not to be verbose. The two main points 
in a good translation are, that it be literal and 
elegant. That is, it shotdd express the exact 
sense of the author's words, and nothing njore, 
in the most elegant way. A due attention to 
your style of translation is important, because it 
will conduce greatly to your improvement in the 
use of your native tongue. 

(6.) Beware, if you would be a thorough stu- 
dent, of making it your main object, to pass 
over muck ground. There is no danger of read- 
ing too much, if you read it as you ought. 
But there is danger of making the amount of 
ground gone over the main object. How often 
have students put to me such questions as these ; 



YOUNG STUDENT. 83 

** How long will it take us to go through the 
Latin Reader?" "How soon can we finish 
Cicero ? " *' How long shall we be in going 
through the ^neid ? " — all uttered in a way 
which clearly showed, that the mind was intent 
rather on passing rapidly over the ground, than 
on making very thorough work of study. Remem- 
ber, that your real progress depends not so much 
on the number of pages you go over, as on the 
manner in which you study. Be willing to study 
long on a few pages, if you cannot otherwise 
acquire a perfect knowledge of them. 

(7.) Be not in too great haste to go into the 
more difficult authurs in your course of prepara- 
tion for college. Most students, I believe, go 
into Virgil and Cicero with far too little previous 
study. They sometimes hardly feel that they 
are accomplishing any thing, till they begin to 
lay Vandal hands on those noble authors. In- 
structers sometimes sit in pain to hear barbarous 
recitations from the ^neid, or the orations of 
Cicero, by one who ought rather to be conning 
the pages of Liber Primus. Now the conse- 
quence in such cases is, not only that the stu- 
dent will fail thoroughly to understand what he 
reads, but that he will be likely to acquire the habit 



84 LETTERS TO A 

of reading in that way. Be not, then, in too great 
haste to go into Virgil, or Cicero, or Sallust. 
Perform cheerfully whatever previous study your 
instructers may deem necessary. 

(8.) Have nothing to do loith translation^, in 
reading Latin and Greek. That it is possible 
for a student to make some use of them without 
injury to himself, I will not deny. But that 
more than one out of a thousand would probably 
do so, I cannot believe. When a student has a 
translation on his table, or in his book-case, or 
even where, for the sake of concealment, it is ' 
sometimes put — in his trunk, — he is strongly 
tempted to recur to it in all cases of difficulty, 
rather than to task severely his own mind. He 
is thus led to form the habit of relying on fo- 
reign aid in such cases, rather than on his own 
resources ; a habit which not only unfits him for 
vigorous and efficient effort in classical study, but 
for every other kind of intense intellectual effort. 
That such is, in a greater or less degree, the 
result, in the case of most students who have 
any thing to do with translations, I have no 
doubt. Away with them, then. Throw yourself 
on your own resources. And you will, in the 
end, I am sure, see no cause to regret it. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 85 

(9.) Frequently exercise yourself in writing 
and speaking Latin and Greek. In translating 
from Latin and Greek into English, we associate 
the idea with the word. In writing and speak- 
ing those languages, we associate the word with 
the idea. Both these modes of association are 
necessary to give us the most perfect familiarity 
with the meaning of Latin and Greek words. 
Besides, in writing and speaking these languages, 
we are obliged to make a constant application of 
the rules of etymology and syntax, and of some 
'rules to which we are liable to give little atten- 
tion. This is, indeed, the most practical mode of 
studying these languages ; and one which con- 
duces more, perhaps, than any other to the rapid 
and thorough acquisition of them. It is, I am 
persuaded, far too much neglected. Exercises 
"n writing Latin and Greek will doubtless be 
prescribed by your instructers. But it would be 
well, if you can find time for it, to do more in 
this way than will be required of you. You will 
probably have no prescribed exercises in speak- 
ing Latin and Greek. But I would strongly re- 
commend it as a voluntary thing. You may 
begin this, as well as the exercise in writing 
these languages, soon after you commence the 
8 



86 LETTERS TO A 

Study of them. Often employ yourself, at first, 
in naming the objects around you, and framing 
easy sentences about them. And you may, at 
length, proceed to more extended efforts. 

2. I have one or two suggestions to make 
in regard to your habits in the recitation 

ROOM. 

(I.) AVhile I would caution you against mak- 
ing it your main object to appear well in the 
recitation room, I would say, aim to rrxife 
'promptly and fluently. Such a mode of recita- 
tion is important, not only because it saves time, 
and is more pleasant to all concerned, but be- 
cause it does much in preparing you to utter 
your thoughts in public on any occasion. The 
man who expresses himself promptly and fluently 
in the recitation room, will be very likely to do 
so, whenever he is called upon to speak before 
others. But the mode of recitation which I 
recommend, will probably require some effort. 
You ought to have special reference to it in 
preparing your lesson. It is very possible to 
understand a lesson well, and yet to recite it 
wretchedly. If you are preparing a demonstra- 
tion in mathematics, after you have mastered it, 
go through with it once or twice in your room, 



YOUNG STUDENT. §7 

before recitation. If you are getting a lesson in 
Latin or Greek, after you have become perfectly 
familiar with it, read it over in an audible voice, 
just as you would read it before your class. And 
whatever your lesson may be, after you have 
prepared it in other respects, repeat it aloud in 
just the way in which you mean to recite it. 
And when you rise in the recitation room, fasten 
your mind on the lesson, and endeavor to pre- 
serve the most perfect self-command. These 
suggestions would seem comparatively trifling, if 
they were designed merely to affect your appear- 
ance before your instructors and class-mates. 
But they will not seem so, I trust, when you 
remember the influence of your habits in the 
recitation room, on your success in public 
speaking. 

(2.) While in the recitation room, give close 
and unremitted attention to the husiness before 
you. If not a single remark should be made by 
your instructor, nor a single ray of light thrown 
on the lesson by your class-mates ; still a close 
attention to the recitation will amount to a re- 
view of the lesson ; and this surely will be a 
profitable exercise. But valuable remarks will 
often be made by your instructor, and new light 



88 LETTERS TO A 

will be thrown on the lesson by your fellow stu- 
dents. By a habit of inattention, then, you will 
certainly lose much. Some students frequently 
spend the whole time of recitation, except the 
few minutes which they occupy in reciting, in 
some kind of reading or writing utterly discon- 
nected with the business before them, or in list- 
lessly looking around the room, or in whispering 
to a class-mate, or perhaps in sleep. Beware of 
all such habits. Let your mind be awake in the 
recitation room. Determine to hear all that is 
said ; and give attention to nothing foreign from 
the subject before you. Act, in this case, on 
the simple precept which I have before mention- 
ed — make the most of every thing in its place. 

3. In addition to your prescribed course of 
study, you will be able to spend considerable 
time in reading, especially after you enter col- 
lege. The course you take in this respect, will 
essentially affect your intellectual character. On 
a subject so important, I cannot forbear to 
make a few suggestions. 

(1.) Be careful to make a good selection of 
books. The world is full of books, many of 
which it would, to say the least, be a vv'aste of 
time to read. A'nd of those that are really val- 
uable, you ought, as you cannot read them all, 



YOUWG STUDEWT. 89 

to select the best. Be not then in the habit of 
reading any thing which happens to come in 
your way. Never peruse a book without being 
satisfied, not only that it possesses intrinsic 
merit, but that it is well adapted to your present 
wants. You may satisfy yourself on these points, 
by asking the advice of some judicious friend, or 
by reading the criticisms of competent judges. 
Ask your instructors, from time to time, to give 
you a list of such books as they would advise 
you to read. 

(2.) While at the academy, spend hut a small 
portion of your time in reading, and let it be 
your main object, in the choice of books, to 
facilitate your progress in classical study. I 
advise you to confine yourself chiefly to Latin 
and Greek, while at the academy, because I 
deem them of vast importance in your course of 
study, and because it seems to me exceedingly 
desirable, that you should lay a broad and deep 
foundation for classical attainments, before you 
enter college. The books, which will aid you 
most in classical study, are works on the geogra- 
phy and history of the ancient nations, espe- 
cially of the Greeks and Romans. Every thing, 
in fine, which will transport you back to the age 
8* 



90 LETTERS TO A 

and country of a classical writer, and make you 
familiar with the circle of objects in view of 
which he thought and wrote, will aid you much in 
acquiring a full view of his meaning. Without 
helps of this description, you will labor in vain 
fully to understand a Latin or Greek writer. Of 
such helps you ought to avail yourself, early in 
your course of study ; and to make far more use 
of them, at every stage of it, than most students 
do. I might have made remarks on this point 
in connection with what I said about the study 
of Latin and Greek. But I chose to make them 
here, because the acquisitions to which I allude, 
are to be made, not so much in the way of pre- 
scribed exercises, as in a course of collateral 
reading, which ought to be commenced at the 
academy. Your reading, however, need not be 
confined to works of the kind I have just men- 
tioned. Indeed, I deem it very desirable that it 
should not be. Some attention you may give to 
modern history, biographical works, books of 
travels, and some of the best poetical works. 
There are a few books which relate especially 
to the formation of moral and intellectual char- 
acter, which you cannot read too soon. One of 
the very best of this class, Foster on Decision 



YOUNG STUDENT. 91 

of Character, I have already recommended. I 
hardly know how to speak of this book in terms 
adequate to my sense of its merit. I advise 
you to read it attentively, without delay. Watts 
on the Improvement of the Mind, is a very 
valuable book, and one well adapted to your 
present stage of study. You would do well, I 
think, to read Burder on Mental Discipline, and 
Dr. Miller's Letters on Clerical Manners and 
Habits. These two works are especially de- 
signed for theological students ; but they contain 
many hints well adapted to students of every 
class. It was rather my intention, however, to 
give some general directions in regard to the 
selection of books, than to make out a list of 
those I would recommend. I have mentioned a 
few only, of a particular class, which happened 
to occur to me. 

(3.) Thoroughly digest what you read. Be 
not content with hastily glancing over a book, or 
with simply apprehending an author's meaning, 
and treasuring up his thoughts in your memory. 
Think much, think independently, pursue origi- 
nal trains of thoughts, on what you read. Thus 
will your reading conduce, in a high degree, to 
thorough mental discipline. The thoughts of 



cyr~ 



dL^-^J^ O ,'^^<^ .^:. 



9-2 LETTERS TO A 

others, being in this way amalgamated with your 
own thoughts, and receiving new modifications 
from the pecuHar habits of your own mind, do 
themselves properly become your own. They 
are thus more firmly fixed in your mind, more 
perfectly subject to your control, and better fitted 
for any use to which you may wish to apply 
them. 

(4.) There is a foolish amhition to read a 
great number of books, which I would caution 
you to avoid as long as you live. The advan- 
tage to be derived from a course of reading, does 
not depend mainly on the number of volumes 
read. It matters not, indeed, how many books 
you read, if you fully understand and thoroughly 
digest them. But it is far better to read a few 
books as you ought, than to go through whole 
libraries in the manner of some. 

(5.) Be much in the habit of reading by sub- 
jects, especially when somewhat more advanced 
in your course of study. Take up some subject 
to which you wish to attend. Read books and 
parts of books which treat of it. When you 
have acquired a complete knowledge of this 
subject, then pass to some other. This should 
not be your only mode of reading. But it may, 



YOUNG STUDENT. 93 

with great advantage, be pursued to considera- 
ble extent. Knowledge acquired thus is well 
classified, and laid away in a good state for use. 

(6.) Make it an object to rend such books as 
will throw light on the particular studies in which 
you are engaged. Of the propriety of this sug- 
gestion, I need not employ a single argument to 
convince you. You will, I trust, bear it in mind, 
as you mark out, from time to time, your plan of 
reading. 

(7.) In regard to talcing notes of your read- 
ing, I have a few suggestions to make. I would 
advise you sometimes to make an abstract of a 
whole book. This will give you a more perfect 
view of the author's plan, and promote compre- 
hensiveness of thought, and the power of arrang- 
ing ideas in a logical way. It is inexpedient to 
transcribe much from any book, unless it is one 
to which you cannot afterwards have access. A 
better way, in ordinary cases, is to keep on your 
table a blank book, in which, as you read, you 
may enter references to any passages of peculiar 
value, at which you will probably wish to look 
again. 

(8.) Beware of spending too much time in 
reading periodicals , especially those of the light- 



94 LETTERS TO A 

er kind. You may not be in danger of this 
now ; but you probably will be, during a part of 
your subsequent course of study. To spend a 
little time in reading newspapers, and maga- 
zines of the lighter sort, will be of service, as a 
relaxation from severe study, and for other pur- 
poses. But when you come, as you probably 
will, to have easy access to' many such works, 
you will be in great danger of wasting time, and 
of mental dissipation. 

4. Make it, from the beginning of your course, 
a prominent object to acquire the power of writ- 
ing well. Of how little worth, comparatively, 
would be the richest treasures of science, and 
the greatest acuteness and vigor of intellect, 
without the power of communicating knowledge. 
How much will the ability to write well, increase 
your influence in any sphere of action, and es- 
pecially in the gospel ministry. But you cannot 
become an able writer, without taking much 
pains, with direct reference to this object. I 
advise you to engage often in the exercise of 
composition. Never, if you can possibly avoid 
it, neglect a prescribed exercise of this kind. 
Some do this, habitually, through a large part 
of their academial course. They usually, how- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 95 

ever, see cause, at length, to lament their folly. 
As they enter on the duties of college life, they 
find themselves in a very unpleasant predica- 
ment, vi^hen required to perform an exercise to 
which they have been so little accustomed. — 
This exercise, however, may be so performed as 
to be of little use to you. In view of this fact, 
and of the difficulty which students find, at first, 
in writing composition, I propose to give you a 
few hints, on the best mode of conducting this 
exercise. These hints will have reference not 
only to your incipient attempts at writing, but to 
your efforts in this way at a more advanced stage 
of study. 

(1.) Select a subject ivliich you can under- 
stand. Some students are fond of taking sub- 
jects quite too difficult for them, for the purpose, 
perhaps, of seeming to be profound. But the 
consequence is, they either fail altogether, or 
write utter nonsense. I make these suggestions 
with special reference to your present stage of 
study. The time will come, I trust, when you 
may grapple with the most difficult subjects in 
every department of science, without fear of 
failure. But, at present, there are some topics 
which you cannot be expected to understand, 



96 LETTERS TO A 

and on which, of course, you will attempt in 
vain to write well. Such, for example, are diffi- 
cult questions in political economy, or meta- 
physics. . 

(2.) Aim to select a subject in which you feel 
a peculiar interest. You will not be likely to 
write well without excitement. The best way 
to produce this, is to take a subject which has 
a strong hold on your feelings. 

(3.) Endeavor, before you write, to ^e^ clear ^ 
definite, and comprehensive views of your subject. 
Select it, if possible, some time before your 
composition will be required. Think much upon 
it. Survey it on every side. Analyze it thor- 
oughly. When your subject is selected for a 
considerable time before you write, your mind 
will often spontaneously recur to it ; and the 
mind usually acts with greatest energy, when it 
thus, without constraint, fastens itself on a 
subject. Your very best thoughts will probably 
come in this way. When, in attempting to ex- 
press yourself on a particular point, you meet 
with difficulty, just pause, and ask yourself, what 
is the precise idea in my mind ? Having ascer- 
tained this, your simple business will be to clothe 
that idea in words. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 97 

(4.) I would advise you to have a definite 
plan of remark before you begin to write. It 
would be well, especially if your composition is 
to be of considerable length, to put the outlines 
of that plan on paper. To have these outlines 
before your eye, will help you to write syste- 
matically. 

(5.) Endeavor, before you begin to write, 
deeply to interest your feelings in your subject. 
This may be done by fixed thought upon it. I 
would advise you, for the sake of emotion, to 
srpend a little time in this way, just before you 
take up your pen, whatever previous preparation 
for writing you may have made. When you feel 
deeply, your mind will act with energy. And 
you will have ready command of language. Apt 
words will come unbidden ; and the work of 
composition will be easy and delightful. 

(6.) When you write, beware of pausing too 
long to consider mere forms of expression. If 
you happen not to be perfectly satisfied with an 
expression which occurs to you, stop not long to 
correct it, lest the ardor of your feelings should 
abate. Go on, and perform the work of correc- 
tion when you have finished the piece. 

(7.) Let what you write be properly your own. 
9 



98 LETTERS TO A 

While engaged in the business of instruction, 
compositions were frequently submitted to me 
for correction, in which I could point out the 
grossest instances of plagiarism. Young stu- 
dents often seem to be hardly sensible, that it is 
an impropfer and pernicious practice to make up 
their compositions by pilfering from others. By 
all means avoid this practice. Aim at origin- 
ality, both in thought and style. I would advise 
you, when you intend to write on a particular 
subject, not to read what an author of senti- 
ments like your own, has written upon it, unless 
it be to obtain facts which you wish to use. 
Such, I know, is not the course of most students. 
When they have selected a subject for composi- 
tion, instead of applying their own minds to it, 
and, by fixed and patient thought, devising trains 
of remark, they set themselves to ransacking 
libraries, in search of authors who have written 
upon it. And after diligently conning every 
such author that can be found, they sit down to 
make a kind of omnium gatlierurn, a collection 
from perhaps twenty different sources. How 
many such pieces of literary patchwork is every 
instructor doomed to read ! When you have 
selected a subject for composition, depend mainly 



YOUNG STUDENT. 99 

for ideas on the efforts of your own mind. The 
more you have read on this subject at some 
former period, the better. But if, just before you 
write, you read what those authors have said on 
your subject, whose opinions accord with your 
own, you will be in danger either of making 
your composition a mere compilation from vari- 
ous books, or of following servilely in the track 
of some one favorite writer. 

(8.) Commit to writing, token you can, striking 
tJwugkts, which may be suggested by what you 
read, or in other ways. Thoughts are evanes- 
cent things. And if not made fast on paper, 
the most valuable ones may pass from us, never 
to be recalled. At least, they may never be re- 
called in precisely the same striking shape in 
which they first occurred to our minds. When 
you have new and interesting thoughts, if you 
have time, v/rite them out at length. This, how- 
ever, you cannot always do. I would recom- 
mend, therefore, the practice of keeping a sort 
of laaste book, in which you may enter brief 
and hasty notes of such striking thoughts as may 
occur to you in the hurry of business, when you 
have not time to write them out in a more full 
and elaborate way. A very few words entered 



100 LETTERS TO A 

in such a book, will suffice to recall to your mind 
a whole train of thought. In such a book, you 
could enter also such subjects for composition, 
as should occur to you when you had no occa- 
sion to make immediate use of them. The 
habit of writing down your own thoughts, which 
I have thus recommended, will not only furnish 
you matter for composition, and give you facility 
and correctness of expression, but will greatly 
conduce to accuracy of thought. " Reading," 
says Lord Bacon, "makes a learned man, ivrit- 
ing, a correct ?nan." 

(9.) I would recom.mend a very pleasant 
means of improvement in writing, correspondence 
with your relatives and friends. To say nothing 
of the claims of friendship and consanguinity, 
you will find letter writing a useful exercise in 
composition. It may not be necessary to recom- 
mend this exercise to you. But some students, 
1 am persuaded, are too much inclined to 
neglect it, especially in the earlier stage of their 
studies. Let me not be understood, however, to 
intimate, that letters should be written in the 
stiff and formal style of an elaborate essay. Nor 
would I advise you to engage in an extensive 
correspondence. But I would say, have a few 



YOUNG STUDENT. 101 

regular correspondents, and while you adopt the 
easy style which epistolary writing requires, let 
not your letters be entirely filled with mere 
common-place remarks, on common-place topics., 
5. With one other topic I shall close this letter. 
I allude to the subject of extemporaneous 
SPEAKING. The ability to speak extemporane- 
ously with ease and effect, is a desirable attain- 
ment, whatever walk in life the student has in 
view. But to one who intends to enter the minis- 
try, it is peculiarly important. Extemporaneous 
preaching is becoming more generally popular. 
In many parts of our country, the demand for it is 
imperative. And in itself considered, it is, I be- 
lieve, the most efficient mode of preaching. Aim 
then, through your whole course of study, to make 
the greatest possible improvement in extempora- 
neous speaking. That some have greater natural 
talents for this art than others, I have no doubt. 
But that almost every man may, by proper pains, 
become a good extemporaneous speaker, is to me 
equally clear. This attainment, however, can- 
not be made, in any case, without much effort. 
Whatever be the natural aptitude for extempora- 
neous speaking, a high degree of excellence in 
it cannot be expected, without the aid of ed- 
9* 



102 LETTERS TO A 

ucation. But this part of education, is, by most 
students, I am persuaded, far too much neglect- 
ed. You cannot too early begin a proper atten- 
tion to it. The most effectual means of improve- 
ment in this, as in every other art, is practice. 
Your first efforts in this way, will doubtless be 
attended with some difficulty, and may seem to 
you not very successful. But be not discouraged. 
The object at which you aim in such efforts, is 
too valuable to be very easily attained, or to be 
deemed unworthy of great and long continued 
exertion. 

I have said that practice is the most effectual 
means of improvement in extemporaneous speak- 
ing. But it should be practice of the right kind. 
It is quite possible for a man to speak much ex- 
temporaneously, and yet do it in such a way, 
that his mode of speaking will be rather chang- 
ing for the worse, than for the better. With 
the view, then, of giving a right direction to your 
efforts in extemporaneous speaking, I have a few 
suggestions to offer. 

(1.) In respect to mere delivery ^ I would say, 
become minutely acquainted, as soon as possible, 
with the best work on this subject, which you can 
obtain, and make a very frequent and thorough 



YOUNG STUDENT. 103 

application of its rules in practice. I know no 
better work on Elocution than Porter's Rhetori- 
cal Reader, or his Analysis of Rhetorical Deliv- 
ery. The former of these two books is specially 
designed for your present stage of study. Make 
yourself familiar with it. But remember, that no 
attention to rules will avail much without practice. 
You ought, if possible, to exercise yourself in 
elocution, a short time every day. Sometimes 
read aloud, with attention to pauses, tones, em- 
phasis, inflections, and every thing which pertains 
to the business of reading. And sometimes, de- 
claim from memory, with due regard not only to 
all the points of good reading, but to attitude and 
gesture. You ought to attain a good delivery 
before you enter college. From' the Professor 
of Rhetoric there, you cannot expect to receive 
much instruction in mere elocution. Something, 
indeed, he will do for you in this respect. But 
his time must be chiefly occupied in higher mat- 
ters. And if you go to college with bad habits 
of delivery, the probability is, they will never be 
broken up. At least, they will not be without 
more effort than the prescribed college exercises 
would lead you to make, and more than most 
students would have the perseverance to make 



104 LETTERS TO A 

in a private way. So far as my own observation 
has extended, students, in general, have made 
but little improvement in elocution at college. 
Indeed, this part of oratory belongs rather to an 
academial, than a collegiate course of study. I 
would advise you to unite with a few of your 
fellow students in a little club for the purpose of 
mutual instruction in elocution. From the free 
and minute criticisms of your associates in such 
a club, you would derive great advantage. A 
student ought, at first, to be drilled as thoroughly 
in elocution, as a military officer drills a recruit. 
Every impropriety in enunciation, attitude, and 
gesture, should be minutely pointed out, and 
untiring efforts should be made to correct it. I 
have seen, with admiration, the very great im- 
provement which mere boys have made, during a 
few hours spent in such a kind of drilling. And 
I am fully convinced, that it is perfectly feasible 
for any student of ordinary talents, to attain a 
good delivery before he enters college. I have 
deemed it proper to make these remarks on the 
subject of elocution, because no one, without a 
good delivery, can hope to become a very im- 
pressive extemporaneous speaker. 

(2.) In regard to a subject for an exercise in 



YOUNG STUDENT. 105 

extemporaneous speaking, I would make essen- 
tially the same remarks that I made in respect 
to a subject for composition. Select one that 
you can understand, and one in which you feel 
a deep interest. 

(3.) Do not speak, if you can avoid it, with- 
out thorough preparation. No matter if, without 
previous thought, you could talk an hour on any 
given subject, with the utmost volubility. Your 
talk might, after all, be merely a voluble utter- 
ance of nonsense. At best, it would probably 
be a collection of crude ideas, expressed in a 
very immethodical way. Endeavor, before you 
speak, to get clear, definite, and comprehensive 
views of the subject. Fix on the train of thought 
you mean to pursue, and make yourself familiar 
with it. And I would advise you, at least til! 
you become somewhat experienced in extem- 
porizing, to give utterance once or twice, in your 
room, to the whole train of thought you mean to 
pursue, just as if your audience were before you. 
This will have a tendency to prevent your being 
frightened at the sound of your own voice, and 
to give you greater facility of expression, when 
you actually appear in public. It will be highly 
conducive also to clearness of thought. 
" Thoughts disentangle passing o'er the lip." 



106 LETTERS TO A 

(4.) Endeavor deeply to feel your subjects 
You cannot move the hearts of those who hear 
you, unless your own heart be moved. A Latin 
poet has well said, 

" si vis me flere, dolendum est 

Primum ipsi tibi." — 

— *' If you wish me to weep, you must first mani- 
fest emotion yourself" Besides, deep feeling 
does more than any thing else to give a man a 
ready command of language. I cannot forbear 
to quote the beautiful and oft repeated remarks 
of Milton on this point. " True eloquence," 
says he, "I find to be none but the serious and 
hearty love of truth; and that whose mind soever 
is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know 
good things, and with the dearest charity to in- 
fuse the knowledge of them into others, — when 
such a man would speak, his words, like so many 
nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at com- 
mand, and in well ordered files, as he would 
wish, fall aptly into their own places." 

(5.) When you speak, fasten your mind on 
your subject, and be not solicitous about language. 
The less you think about language, the better. 
If your mind be intent on culling fine expressions, 
you may lose your train of thought, and will cer- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 107 

tainly be far less likely to use appropriate and ele- 
gant language, than if you were wholly uncon- 
cerned about your style. I have advised you to 
speak extemporaneously on your subject, before- 
hand. But I would have you make no effort, 
when you come to speak in public, to recall the 
expressions you used in that previous exercise. 
Many of them will probably come unbidden. If 
not, let them go ; and take such others as may 
occur to you. Fasten your mind on your subject, 
and that alone. And you will be likely so deeply 
to feel what you have to say, that words will 
come unsought. 

(G.) Often exei'cise yourself privatehj in ex- 
temporaneous speaking. Take some subject 
which you fully understand, and in which you 
feel some interest, and speak upon it extempore 
in your room. To spend a few minutes in this 
way daily, would aid you greatly in acquiring 
fluency of thought and language. 

(7.) I would advise you, through your whole 
course of study, to be a member of some society 
for extemporaneous speaking. And when you 
have joined such a society, determine to be an 
efficient member of it. Be punctual. Make 
due preparation for every exercise. Never pre- 



108 LETTERS TO A YOUNG STUDENT. 

face what you have to say with the hackneyed 
apology, " I have not thought of the subject." 
Act in accordance with the spirit of that quaint, 
but excellent precept, " Never speak unless you 
have something to say; and always stop when 
you have done." 

(8.) It will conduce to your improvement in 
extemporaneous speaking, to aim at 'propriety of 
expression in your conversation. If you allow 
yourself to be in the daily use of inaccurate, 
awkward, or vulgar phraseology, you will be very 
likely to use it in the excitement of extempora- 
neous speaking. Discard every thing of this 
kind from your conversation ; as you may do 
without stiffness or affectation. 

I might say much more on the subject of ex- 
temporaneous speaking. But all I designed to 
do was merely to give you a few hints in regard 
to it. I would recommend to your attentive 
perusal, Ware's "Hints on Extemporaneous 
Preaching," a work, which, though it has refer- 
ence to a particular profession, you may read 
with profit now, not only because you have that 
profession in view, but because it contains sug- 
gestions which are calculated greatly to facilitate 
improvement in any kind of extemporaneous 
speaking. 



LETTER V. 



MORAL HABITS. 



Caution against deferring high Christian attainments to a more con- 
venient season — Daily duties of the closet — Stated and occasional 
seasons of fasting and prayer — Observance of the Sabbath — Cul- 
tivation of expansive Cliristian benevolence — Making study a re- 
ligious duty — Efforts to promote a revival of religion. 



My Dear Young Friend, — Important as in- 
tellectual improvement is, moral culture is far 
more so. ''With the talents of an angel," says 
Young, " a man may be a fool." And, to borrow 
the striking language of another, " a giant in 
intellect, without moral culture, is but a giant 
madman." All this, I doubt not, you deeply 
feel. You have taken the Christian name upon 
you ; and have resolved, I trust, to aim at high 
moral attainments. I design, in this letter, to 
10 



110 LETTERS TO A 

give you some counsels in respect to the formation 
of your moral habits. There are some dangers 
and duties peculiar to a course of study. Many 
of my remarks will have special reference to these. 
I shall not forbear, however, to touch on some 
topics of common interest to Christians of every 
class. I shall aim, in fine, to make just such 
suggestions as experience and observation have 
led me to think a young Christian student pecu- 
liarly needs. 

1. Beware of the delusive notion, that some 

FUTURE TIME WILL BE MORE CONVENIENT FOR 

ENTIRE DEVOTION TO GoD. The pomicious in- 
fluence of such a notion on Christian character, 
is seen in every walk of life. All Christians will 
acknowledge, that they ought now to live for God 
alone. But how to do this they find not. There 
are, at present, great difficulties in the way of 
entire devotion to God. Their circumstances 
are unfavorable to the cultivation of ardent de- 
votional feeling. But they hope their situation 
will be better soon. They are looking forward 
to a future period, when they confidently expect 
to find it much more easy to be eminently de- 
voted Christians. They hope to have more lei- 
sure, or to be free from some strong temptations 



YOUNG STUDENT. HI 

which now harass them, or to enjoy better reli- 
gious privileges, or, in some other respect, to 
possess greater facilities for the cultivation of 
piety. Well, the anticipated time arrives. And, 
it may be, the anticipated change of circumstan- 
ces takes place. They have more leisure. They 
are delivered from some temptations to which 
they had been exposed. They possess better 
religious privileges. But leisure hours may steal 
away the heart from God, as well as busy ones. 
And when one temptation passes away, some 
other usually takes its place. And the best reli- 
gious privileges will not make it easy to ** crucify 
the flesh with the affections and lusts." They 
find it difficult still to give up the whole heart to 
God. But still they cling to their old delusion. 
They again look forward to some future time, as 
the happy period when difficulties will all vanish 
away, and they shall become what the word of 
God requires them to be. Alas, how many go 
through life in this way, — always 



about to live, 



" Forever on the brink of being born." 

And yet they " die the same." If saved at all, 
they are saved " as by fire." Perhaps a student 
is in peculiar danger of falling into such a course. 



1 12 LETTERS TO A 

His circumstances undergo some change at 
every transition from one stage of study to 
another. And as he is constantly looking for- 
ward to some such transition, it is not strange, 
that a deceitful heart should lead him to neglect 
present effort, in the hope that a change of cir- 
cumstances will soon render high Christian at- 
tainments more easy. 

Such, I doubt not, is the course of many a 
Christian student — if Christian he may be call- 
ed, who is so unlike his divine Master. At the 
academy, he is pressed with study. He wishes 
to fit himself for college in as short a time as 
possible. His classical exercises seem to him 
to demand all his time, and all his strength. He 
can find but little leisure for the peculiar duties 
of religion, — but little time to read his Bible — 
to search his heart — to pray — to labor for the 
conversion of sinners around him. He acknow- 
ledges his worldliness. He even affects to 
lament it. But he hardly knows how he can do 
better just now. He lives, however, in hopes of 
belter times. When he enters college, he doubts 
not he shall be a more devoted Christian. He 
will then, he hopes, have more leisure. He will 
not be required to accomplish the most he can 



YOUNG STUDENT. H3 

possibly do in the studies of his class ; but his 
daily task will be assigned. And he confidently 
expects to find ample time for the culture of his 
own heart, and for offices of Christian faithful- 
ness to those around him. He soothes his con- 
science with many a bright picture of the excel- 
lent life he then will lead. — Well, the years of 
his academial course pass by. He enters col- 
lege. But, alas ! though circumstances have 
changed, his heart remains the same. He loves 
the world still. And even here, the way of 
Christian virtue is difficult. Business presses 
upon him. Temptations cluster around him. 
Ambition woos and wins his heart. And he is 
now still more inclined than ever, to defer the 
work of entire self-denial to a more convenient 
season. But that convenient season, he thinks, 
is surely not far distant. He designs to become 
a minister of the gospel. And in the theological 
seminary, he confidently expects to find a happy 
retreat from temptation, and such facilities for 
the culture of pious feeling, that even his cold 
heart will be warmed, and his sluggish spirit 
roused. His companions will all be pious men — 
his studies sacred — his object holy. How can 
he fail there to make high Christian attain- 
10* 



114 LETTERS TO A 

ments ? — At length his college days are ended. 
Crowned with those academic laurels which 
fired his vain heart with ambition, and stole his 
affections from God, he goes to the theological 
seminary. But even there he finds, that world- 
liness still cleaves to his spirit. The chains of 
sinful habit have become too strong to be easily 
broken. lie finds it quite possible to be sur- 
rounded by pious men, and yet live far estranged 
from God — to study the ** letter " of the divine 
word, and yet fail to catch the " spirit," which 
" maketh alive." He is, perhaps, a close stu- 
dent. He becomes skilled in all the minutiae of 
sacred philology, and in every department of 
theological science. And he maintains the 
form of godliness ; but he has very little of its 
power. — And can he still quiet his conscience in 
present worldliness, with the vain hope, that 
some future change of circumstances will bring 
him near to God ? It is even so. " I am 
busied now," he says to himself, *' with abstruse 
philological matters, and the subtleties of 
polemic theology. My companions are all pious 
men. There are no impenitent sinners in close 
connection with me, to excite feelings of holy 
compassion in my soul — to present their awaken- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 115 

ing claims to my prayers and my efforts. When 
I enter the ministry, the sense of its high respon- 
sibilities, and the sympathies of the pastoral rela- 
tion, cannot fail to raise high the tone of pious 
feeling in my heart." Deluded man ! He takes 
upon him the holy office of the ministry. And 
he maintains, perhaps, a fair reputation. But 
he is still a " half-way Christian." The habit 
of shrinking from present self-denial, in the hope 
of finding entire devotion to God more convenient 
hereafter, has become so confirmed, that it seems 
almost impossible to break it. It goes with him 
to the grave. And if he sink not at last to the 
final abode of the hypocrite, he is, indeed, 
" scarcely saved." 

Let me now say to you, my dear young friend, 
*' now is the accepted time" for entire devotion 
to God. You may be tempted now ; but so it 
will always be. Your present temptations may 
pass away, but others will come in their stead. 
It may be difficult now to keep near to God. 
But difficult it will always be, till the " flesh" 
ceaseth to " lust against the spirit," and the 
world, and the *' god of this world," to tempt 
you. Beware, then, of saying I cannot be a 
devoted Christian now, but I hope to become 



116 LETTERS TO A 

one hereafter. Would you know what will be 
your character at college, or in the theological 
seminary, or in the Christian ministry, just ask 
yourself, what am I now ? — what habits am I 
now forming 1 These habits will abide with 
you, it may be, till your dying day. Give, then, 
your whole soul to the Saviour now. And form 
such habits as you would be willing to carry with 
you into college — the theological seminary — the 
Christian ministry — aye, and even to the judg- 
ment seat. 

2. Be faithful in the daily duties of 
THE closet. If you fail here, you will fail in 
every part of Christian duty. If you should 
depart from God, and bring reproach upon the 
Saviour's name, the decline of piety will proba- 
bly begin here. And under the pressure of stu- 
dy, you will often be tempted wholly to neglect, 
or hastily and carelessly to perform your private 
devotions. Yield not to such temptations. Neg- 
lect any thing rather than the duties of the 
closet. You ought to have regular times for 
secret devotion. How frequent they should be, I 
will not undertake to say. But you will feel it, 
I trust, both a privilege and a duty, to pray in 
secret, at least three times a day. You should 



YOUNG STUDENT. 117 

mark out those hours for retirement which you 
find most favorable to devotional feeling. Of 
your evening devotions, I would say, let them 
not be delayed till so late an hour, that fatigue 
and drowsiness render you unfit to perform them. 
But whatever hours you assign to secret prayer, 
fail not "to observe them — no, not in a single in- 
stance, unless something beyond your control, 
compels you to do so. You will sometimes be 
placed in circumstances in which it will be dif- 
ficult to find opportunity for retirement. This 
is often the case in travelling, especially in the 
stage; When you have occasion to travel in this 
way, as you probably sometimes will, during 
your vacations, watch for opportunities to spend, 
at least, a little time in secret devotion. Watch 
for them as a hungry man would for food. And 
make the most of them, when they occur. Pur- 
sue this course whenever you are away from 
your ordinary place of residence, under circum- 
stances unfavorable to the regular performance 
of closet duties. Be assured, if you fail to do 
this, darkness will come over your soul. When 
Christians visit their pious friends, they are often 
too neglectful in respect to affording facilities 
for secret devotion. This is often the case in 



118 LETTERS TO A 

the visits which pious students interchange. Be 
careful that you do not err in this respect. 
When a Christian brother spends a night with 
you, fail not to afford him facilities, both at 
evening and morning, for secret devotion. If he 
love to commune with God, he will deem this an 
act of kindness. And even if he is a man of a 
worldly spirit, it will convey a reproof, which 
cannot offend, and may greatly profit him. 

3. In addition to your daily exercises of pri- 
vate devotion, observe both stated and occa- 
sional SEASONS OF FASTING AND PRAYER. Thc 

observance of such seasons is sanctioned by the 
word of God, and by the example of holy men 
in every age of the church. Our spiritual wants 
require it. The heart is deceitful above all 
things, and desperately wicked. The world 
may be stealing its affections away from God, 
while we hardly suspect that aught is wrong. 
The daily round of devotional duty, may, in 
form at least, be kept up — and that too, with 
some self-complacency — while the Saviour has 
somewhat against us, because we have forsaken 
our first love. It is important, then, to turn 
aside, sometimes, from our ordinary pursuits, for a 
longer time than we can spend in our daily de- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 119 

votions, to search our deceitful hearts, to look 
over memory's record of the past, and lift up the 
eye of penitence and faith to Him from whom 
all our help cometh. No one, I think, who has 
any just sense of the deceitfulness and depravity 
of his heart, can fail to prize such seasons. 
Then the soul, weary, and faint, and despond- 
ing, perhaps, in the conflict with its numerous 
foes, gathers strength for a more vigorous onset. 
Fail not to make frequent use of this important 
means of grace. I have said, that seasons of 
fasting and prayer should be both stated and 
occasional. I would advise you statedly to set 
apart a day for this purpose, as often, at least, as 
once a month. And as to occasional seasons of 
this kind, observe them when your circumstances 
seem to render them peculiarly necessary. When 
you find it difficult, in some very important mat- 
ter, to ascertain the path of duty ; when you are 
about to make some great change in your cir- 
cumstances and relations in life ; and on other 
occasions, when you feel yourself to be in pecu- 
liar need of communion with your own heart, 
your Bible, and your God ; you will find a day of 
fasting and prayer of incalculable value. You 
need not fear, that to spend a few seasons of this 



120 LETTERS TO A 

kind, in the course of every term, would take 
away too much time from your studies. To 
preserve a holy frame of mind, will conduce, I 
doubt not, to your success in study. It will 
keep you from indolence, and give you a tran- 
quillity of spirit which is favorable to intense 
mental effort. Besides, by due economy in the 
use of time, and a judicious management of your 
affairs, you will be able to appropriate sufficient 
time to the duty I have been recommending, 
without any serious interference with your course 
of study. 

4. I have a few hints to offer on the due ob- 
servance OF THE Sabbath. Your growth in 
grace depends very much on the manner in 
which you keep holy time. And, during your 
course of study, you will be exposed to some 
peculiar dangers in this respect. Let me, then, 
advise you : — 

(I.) To make Saturday evening a season of 
■preparation for the Sabbath. I make this re- 
mark on the supposition, that, as many do, you 
begin Sabbath at midnight. If, with you, Sat- 
urday evening forms a part of holy time, you 
will, of course, devote it wholly to religious du- 
ties. But if that be not the case, I would advise 



YOUNG STUDENT. 121 

you to suspend your studies at the close of Sat- 
urday afternoon, and spend the evening chiefly 
in such meditation, reading, conversation, and 
other employments, as are calculated to fit the 
mind for holy time. A prayer meeting, or reli- 
gious conference, on Saturday evening, I have 
found to be an excellent means of preparing my 
own heart for, the Sabbath. I would advise you 
to avail yourself of such a privilege whenever you 
can. I have deemed it important to lay before 
you the subject of this paragraph, because I 
have reason to believe, that many pious students 
who do not regard Saturday evening as a part of 
the Sabbath, are in the habit of devoting it to 
study. They lose much, I am persuaded, by 
this practice. The man, whose mind is engross- 
ed with secular concerns of any kind, till the 
close of Saturday evening, will not be very likely 
to find himself, on Sabbath morning, in such a 
frame of mind as befits holy time. 

(2.) Let yowx preparation for ijublic worship, 
in respect to dress and personal appearance, 
occupy as little of holy time as possible. Lay 
your Sabbath-day garments by the side of your 
bed, on Saturday evening, ready to be put on 
when you rise in the morning. You will have no 
II 



122 LETTERS TO A 

occasion, then, to change your dress during the 
Sabbath ; and will thus save much time, which 
is usually spent in that way. 

(3.) Endeavor to get exercise of some kind on 
the Sabbath. If you fail to do this, you will be 
likely to feel a dullness, and perhaps drowsiness, 
which will quite unfit you for the efficient dis- 
charge of the duties of the day. You cannot 
take your ordinary exercise. But you can de- 
vise some substitute for it. Walking, I would 
not recom.mend, at least in most cases. It would 
seem to countenance the practice, in which many 
are so prone to indulge, of strolling about on 
the Sabbath for mere amusement. You may 
take various kinds of exercise in your room, 
which will answer your purpose tolerably well, 
such as walking, swinging a chair, &c. After 
all, you will be likely to get less exercise on the 
Sabbath, than on other days. The best remedy 
for this, is to eat somewhat less than usual. 

(4.) Do not make a practice of visiting on 
the Sabbath, not even for religious purposes. 
You can find time enough for this during the 
week. And the time that is not occupied with 
public religious services, will not be too much to 
jbe spent in your room. Even during a time of 



YOUNG STUDENT. 123 

religious excitement, when many of your impen- 
itent fellow students would be glad to see you at 
their rooms, I would advise you not to make a 
practice of visiting them on the Sabbath. You 
ought carefully to avoid giving any countenance 
to the practice of Sabbath-day visiting, as this is 
one of the most pernicious habits that can pre- 
vail in a community of students, especially 
among the irreligious part. 

(5.) I would advise you not to read religious 
neivspapers on the Sabbath. Many excellent 
men do this. But it is liable, I think, to several 
objections. Most religious newspapers contain 
some secular intelligence. This will sometimes 
catch the eye, when we read such papers on the 
Sabbath, and, ere we are aware of it^ engross 
the attention. Moreover, Sabbath-day reading 
ought to be of a devotional cast. And many, 
even of the religious pieces, in such papers, are 
not of this description. Besides, to read reli- 
gious papers on the Sabbath, might, in some 
cases, seem to countenance the reading of secu- 
lar papers during holy time. On the whole, as 
you can find time enough to read religious news- 
papers on other days, and have better work for 
the Sabbath, I advise you to let them alone on 
that day. 



124 LETTERS TO A 

(6.) Write no letters on the Sabbath, not 
even religious letters. Letters of this descrip- 
tion, some very good men do not hesitate to 
write during holy time. But if you allow your- 
self to write any letters on the Sabbath, you will 
be very likely sometimes to write, in part at 
least, on secular subjects. Besides, you have 
other things which properly belong to holy time, 
quite sufficient to occupy all its hours. 

(7.) Beware of falling into loorldly conversa- 
tion on the Sabbath. You are in peculiar dan- 
ger of being led into literary conversation. The 
transition from profitable remarks on the subject 
of a religious book to a discussion of the lite- 
rary merits of the author, is, to a student, ex- 
ceedingly easy. Guard against this, and every 
thing of a similar kind. Let your conversation 
on the Lord's day, be in a high degree spiritual. 

(8.) Never criticise the preacher on the Sab- 
bath. To this fault students are peculiarly lia- 
ble. Go not to the house of God to be gratified 
with profound argumentation, a beautiful style, 
or an impressive delivery. Sit not as a critic on 
the messenger of the Most High. But let it be 
your chief desire to hear " as 'tis, the essential 
truth" — to learn the will of your Maker. And 



YOUNG STUDEMT. 125 

when, during holy time, you talk about what you 
have heard from the pulpit, speak rather of the 
subjects which have been presented, than of the 
manner of the speaker. All I have now said is, 
indeed, implied in advice given in the last para- 
graph. But the habit of criticising the public 
exercises of the Sabbath, is so common among 
students, that I wished you to give it a distinct 
consideration. 

(9.) Aim to make the Sabbath eminently a 
day of devotion. Spend much more time in 
secret prayer, than you do on other days. Let 
your reading be chiefly of a devotional kind. 
The Bible should, of course, be the principal 
book. Next to this, I would recommend such 
works as the Saint's Rest, the Imitation of 
Christ, and Doddridge's Rise and Progress. 
Strive to be " in the spirit on the Lord's day" — 
to break the chain of worldliness which has 
bound your soul — to rise above the trifles of 
earth, and breathe awhile a purer atmosphere. 

5. Begin early to cultivate the spirit of 
EXPANSIVE Christian benevolence. The 
present is peculiarly an age of benevolent, effort. 
The church has waked up to the noble enter- 
prize of converting the world. She is attempt- 
11* 



126 LETTERS TO A 

ing great things, and expecting great things. 
All her sons should be men of liberal soul, espe- 
cially those, whose province it is to lead her 
onward in the glorious work to which God has 
called her. You aspire to be one of those. Let 
your soul, then, be early fired with the spirit of 
Christian benevolence. Become familiar with 
the subject of missions, and with all the great 
benevolent enterprizes of the day. Read, 
regularly, those periodicals which will give you 
information about them. And do all you can to.( 
disseminate such information in the community, 
and multiply friends to the cause of Christian 
benevolence. You may do much in this way 
among your fellow students ; and much in your 
intercourse with your friends and others, during 
your vacations. 

I would advise you, also, to turn your thoughts 
early to the question. Is it not my duty to be- 
come a missionary ? There are important rea- 
sons for deciding this question, at an early period 
in your course of study. For a full exhibition 
of these reasons, I would refer you to an excel- 
lent article in the Quarterly Register and Jour- 
nal of the American Education Society, for 
May, 1831. I cannot forbear, however, to pre- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 127 

sent a single consideration in favor of examining 
early the claims of the missionary service — the 
happy influence of such an examination on the 
preparation of the heart for the work of the 
ministry. With the better motives which lead a 
pious student to fix his eye on the ministry, there 
may be mingled, in far greater proportions than 
his partial friends suspect, or than he himself is 
willing to believe, the mere love of influence, 
and of the honor which cometh from men, with 
\ many other motives of a worldly nature. If he 
present distinctly before his mind the question 
of personal duty in respect to a missionary life, 
it will furnish an excellent test of his motives. 
It will present the office of the ministry before 
him divested of many attractions which it wears 
in a Christian land, and attended with many 
circumstances of privation and danger. It will 
lead him to ask, Do I wish to enter the ministry 
from a regard to my own glory, or the glory of 
my Redeemer ? Do I wish to make it an easy 
service, a mere instrument of self-gratification ; 
or a work of severe and unremitted toil, of rigid 
and uncompromising self-denial ? Am I will- 
ing to go any where at the bidding of my Mas- 
ter, even to " the farthest verge of the green 



128 LETTERS TO A 

earth ? " Can I submit to the most painful pri- 
vations, and face the most appalhng dangers, to 
rescue souls from perdition, and glorify the name 
of Jesus ? In a word, he will be led to inquire 
whether he aspires to the sacred office for 
its own sake, or the sake of any worldly good. 
And if there be any alloy in the composition of 
his motives — as, indeed, in a greater or less de- 
gree, is always the case — such an examination 
will operate as the refiner's fire to purge it away. 
Now it is very important, that one who has the 
ministry in view, should early divest himself of 
any wrong motives he may have in wishing to 
engage in this holy work. For when once such 
motives have gained a strong hold on the heart, 
it is exceedingly difficult, and becomes more and 
more so every day, to tear them away from it. 
Should you early bring before your mind the 
question of personal duty in regard to the mis- 
sionary work, and make the strict self-examina- 
tion to which that question naturally leads, I 
should confidently expect, that you would enter 
the ministry with a better spirit, and a higher 
standard of ministerial excellence, than you 
would otherwise possess. And this would prob- 
ably be the result, in whatever way you might 



YOUNG STUDENT. 129 

decide the question of duty, provided that deci- 
sion were conscientiously made. 

6. Make your studies a part of your re- 
ligion. Some students are sadly deficient in 
this respect. Their views of Christian duty are 
quite too narrow. They hardly seem to feel 
that religion has any concern with their ordinary 
employments. Now it should be as much an 
act of Christian duty to get the lesson of every 
day, as to perform the devotional services which 
belong to it. Form the habit of acknowledging 
God " in all your ways" — of doing every thing 
" as unto the Lord." When you sit down to 
get a lesson, feel that you are engaging in a duty 
which you owe to your Redeemer. Study for 
Christ ; and your studies will be far less likely 
to draw your heart away from him. 

7. Make strong and constant efforts 
TO PROMOTE A REVIVAL OF RELIGION in the insti- 
tution to which you belong. Many students, 
who bear the Christian name, hardly seem to 
know, that souls are perishing around them. 
They are guilty, it is true, of no gross immorali- 
ty. They are regular in their attendance on 
public worship, and are seen among their breth- 
ren at the communion table. But they make no 



130 LETTERS TO A 

efforts to save the souls of their impenitent fellow 
students. Nay, they do much, by the worldly 
spirit they exhibit, and the levity of their deport- 
ment, to urge sinners onward in their course to 
perdition. Others seem to have a kind of inter- 
mittent zeal in the cause of Christ. Sometimes 
they appear to be very sober and spiritually 
minded, and to feel a solicitude for the salvation 
of souls. They frequent religious meetings. 
They warn the impenitent. They are unwea- 
ried in their efforts to promote a revival of re- 
ligion. They " run well ; " but alas ! it is only 
" for a season." The fitful flame of devotion in 
their bosoms soon dies away. The world en- 
grosses their affections. They cease to labor 
for the conversion of souls. And well might 
their friends ask them, " where is the blessed- 
ness ye spake of? " Be not like either of the char- 
acters I have described. Strive not to quiet 
your conscience in the neglect of present efforts 
to promote the cause of Christ, with the idea 
that you are preparing yourself for future use- 
fulness. You will be likely to do but little 
for Christ in future life, if you form the habit 
now of living in a state of indifference to the 
spiritual interests of those around you. And it 



YOUNG STUDENT. 131 

is very possible, that you may never again be 
placed in circumstances where you can do so 
much good as in your present situation. Think, 
as you look at the impenitent young men around 
you, of the spiritual wants of the world. And 
remember, that should their souls be converted, 
not a few of them would probably bear the priv- 
ileges of the gospel to destitute portions of our 
own land, or to the dreary regions of heathen 
darkness. And let such thoughts call forth 
earnest and constant efforts to lead them to the 
Saviour. In regard to the means you may use 
to promote a revival of religion among your fel- 
low students, allow me to make a few sugges- 
tions. 

(1.) Live a holy life. In vain will you tell 
your impenitent fellow students of the excellence 
of religion, while your life contradicts what you 
say. If you warn them, your warnings will be 
unheeded. Your prayers will seem to them an 
empty sound. And be assured, you cannot easi- 
ly play the hypocrite with them. If you are not 
really devoted to God, they will be very likely, 
in their frequent and familiar intercourse with 
you, to find it out. 

(2.) Resolve that you will, if possible, mahe 



132 LETTERS TO A 

some direct efforts every day, to promote a revi- 
val of religion. Oh, how happy would be the 
results, should every pious student in the land, 
make it a rule to ask, with the rising of every 
sun, What can I do for the salvation of souls to- 
day ? what impenitent sinner can I warn ? what 
can I do to raise the tone of piety among my 
brethren? — and to feel, with every setting sun, 
that the day has been in a measure lost, if some 
such efforts have not been made. Let such be 
your course. 

(3.) Converse often with the impenitent about 
the concerns of their souls. Be not afraid to do 
this. They will expect it ; and if you do it in 
the right way, you will not offend them. Take 
pains in your daily intercourse with them, to 
gain their confidence, that your conversation 
may do them more good. Watch for opportu- 
nities to converse with them — such opportunities 
will not always come unsought. When you con- 
verse, he in earnest. How can you be otherwise, 
when you are striving to save a soul from eternal 
death 1 Let them see, that you feel what you 
say — that you have an intense desire for their 
salvation — that the feeling of your heart is, " how 
can I give thee up ?" Endeavor plainly to show 



YOUNG STUDENT. 133 

them their guilt and danger. They will seldom 
be displeased with this, if your manner be affec- 
tionate. And when circumstances permit, pray 
with them. The effect of this is often very 
happy. 

(4.) Endeavor to be always present at those 
religious meetings which it may be thought best 
to hold, and be always ready to take any part in 
ihem which may properly belong to you. Never 
grieve your brethren, and give the impenitent 
'Occasion to think that you feel but little interest 
in the cause of Christ, by being unnecessarily 
absent from the religious conference or prayer 
meeting, or by being improperly reluctant, when 
there, to make remarks, or to lead in prayer. 
Pious students are sometimes strangely remiss in 
these respects, especially when religion is in a low 
state. But at such a time, you ought to take 
peculiar pains to be present at stated religious 
meetings, and to perform any duty in them which 
may properly devolve on you. 

(5.) Pious students are sometimes in doubt 
about the path of duty in respect to the prose- 
cution of study during a season of peculiar 
religious excitement. I advise you not to 
abandon your studies at such a time. Some at- 
12 



134 LETTERS TO A 

tention to study during a revival of religion, so 
far from exerting an injurious influence, will 
tend to keep your mind in a well balanced state. 
It will be likely to prevent that excess of animal 
feeling, which is usually followed by an unhappy 
reaction ; and which, while it lasts, is unfavora- 
ble both to your own growth in grace, and to the 
due preparation of your mind for efforts in behalf 
of others. I have no doubt that it may some- 
times be proper, during a revival, to spend an 
unusually large amount of time in efforts to pro- 
mote the salvation of souls. But I cannot think 
it your duty, even then, except in some very pe- 
culiar case, to give your whole time to this work. 
Determine, in the fear of God, how much time 
you ought to spend in this way, and how many 
hours should be given to study. When you are 
laboring directly for the salvation of your fellow 
students, throw your whole soul into the work. 
And when you study, aim to abstract your 
thoughts from every thing else, even from the 
spiritual condition of those around you, and to 
study with all your might. If your mind wan- 
ders away to some scene of deep religious in- 
terest, bring it back, and fix it again on your 
lesson. You will thus render it less inconve- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 135 

nient, if the cause of Christ demand it, to make 
a temporary abridgment of the period of time 
allotted to study. To withdraw your mind from 
the scenes of a religious revival, even during 
your hours of study, will sometimes cost you a 
severe and unpleasant effort. But it is one 
which you ought to make ; and which, if it pro- 
ceed from right motives, will be an act of self- 
denial, as truly acceptable to God, as any other. 
(6.) Be hold and frank in your efforts for the 
salvation of souls. I would not countenance 
rash and injudicious measures. But there is a 
kind of prudence, falsely so called, which exerts 
a pernicious influence on the cause of Christ. 
Those who possess it, never dare to act without 
a precedent. They are very fearful of making 
too much ado about religion, or of giving sinners 
reason to suspect that Christians have some de- 
sign upon them. Religious conversation with 
the impenitent must always be introduced, they 
think, in a sort of accidental way ; as if religion 
were a mere by-concern, which ought, by no 
means to be made very prominent ; or as if a 
desire to save souls were too ignoble to be openly 
avowed. Now you ought to be governed by true 
Christian prudence, in your eflforts to promote a 



136 LETTERS TO A VOUNG STUDENT. 

revival of religion. But this consists, I appre- 
hend, mainly in these two things — love to souls, 
and common sense. If you possess these, and 
call them duly into exercise, you will not be 
likely to fall into any ill-advised courses. Im- 
pelled by love to souls, and guided by common 
sense, you need not fear frankly to tell your im- 
penitent fellow students, that you mean, if pos- 
sible, to save their souls. Nor need you fear to 
adopt bold and energetic measures. " I have 
often had occasion to observe," says Cecil, ''that 
a warm bhmdering man, does more for the world, 
than a frigid wise man, A man, who gets into 
the habit of inquiring about proprieties, and ex- 
pediencies, and occasions, often spends his life 
without doing any thing to purpose. The state 
of the world is such, and so much depends on 
action, that every thing seems to say loudly to 
every man, ' Do something' — ' do it' — 'do it. 



} }} 



LETTER Vr. 



MORAL HABITS. 



Levity of deportment— Value of time— Absence during term-time- 
Neglect of prescribed exercises — Punctuality — Economy — Relr- 
gious reading— Caution against being proud of intellectual attain- 
ments — Courtesy — Cautions against losing the respect of associates 
— Visiting — Deportment at boarding-houses — Room-mate — Bosom 
friends — Obedience to laws — Deportment towards instructers-^ 
Doing good to younger students — Attending religious meetings, 
and making other efforts to do good abroad. 

My Dear Young Friend, — I have not yet 
quite done with the general subject of my last 
letter. It will be my object in this, to make 
some further suggestions in regard to your moral 
habits — using this term in a liberal sense. And 
you will allow me here to repeat, with particular 
reference to the class of topics I have now in 
view, what I have before said in a general way, — 
that it is not my purpose to touch on all the 
*12 



138 LETTERS TO A 

bearings of any subject which I may introduce 
in these letters, but merely to say such things as 
seem to me specially important to you. 

1. Let me earnestly urge you to guard against 

LEVITY IN YOUR DEPORTMENT. Of tllis yOU 

will be in peculiar danger. When many young 
persons, of any description, are thrown together, 
and have much familiar intercourse with each 
other, they are exceedingly liable to fall into un- 
becoming levity of deportment. Perhaps there 
is a peculiar liability to this in the case of stu- 
dents, from the nature of theii* employments. 
When the mind has been, for a considerable 
time, intensely applied to study, it naturally seeks 
relaxation ; and in this, it often goes too far — 
giving a license to the languid spirits, which, 
though it may impart to them new buoyancy, 
leads, nevertheless, to an unhappy lightness of 
demeanor. As your dangers in this respect are 
great, guard against them with peculiar vigi- 
lance. Think much of that passage of God's 
word, " Young men likewise exhort to be sober 
minded." This precept does not forbid cheer- 
fulness. Cheerfulness is even a Christian duty. 
But it does forbid that frivolity of which pious 
students are often guilty. You will doubtless be 



YOUNG STUDENT. 139 

in far greater danger of this, than of the opposite 
extreme. It is a very good rule to engage in no 
such conversation, to exhibit no such deportment 
of any kind, that to engage in prayer immediately 
after it, would, to a sensible observer, seem in- 
congruous with what you had just been doing. 
And if you are in doubt whether, in any particu- 
lar practice, you pass the line which separates 
cheerfulness from levity, just ask yourself, Does 
it unfit me for prayer ? Let me advise you to 
guard against levity at all times. If you allow 
yourself to indulge in it when but few are pre- 
sent, or even in familiar intercourse with your 
room-mate only, you will be likely to do the same, 
on other and more public occasions. 

2. Cherish a deep sense of the value 
OF TIME. Regard it as a talent committed to 
you by God, for which you must render a solemn 
account. And be assured you have not a mo- 
ment to lose. I am fully persuaded, that many 
pious students have far too little tenderness of 
conscience in regard to the waste of time. Do 
not, however, mistake on this subject. To take 
sufficient sleep is not waste of time. To spend 
some portion of every day in mental relaxation 
and bodily exercise, is not waste of time. To 



140 LETTERS TO A 

neglect the necessary means of preserving health, 
though some excellent young men have done it, 
with the expectation of gaining time, proves an 
actual loss in the end. The rule of duty which 
you ought to adopt, and to which )ou should 
rigidly adhere, is, simply, to spend every moment 
of time in the way best calculated to promote the 
great object you have in view, 

3. liCt me enjoin it upon you as a religious 

duty, NEVER TO BE UNNECESSARILY ABSENT 
FROM THE INSTITUTION TO WHICH YOU BELONG, 

DURING TERM-TIME. Somc studcnts, both at 
the Academy and in College, are almost always 
absent a few days after the commencement of a 
term ; and go away, when they can obtain per- 
mission, a little while before its close. They 
are often absent, also, for a longer or shorter 
period, at other times in the course of the term, 
to visit their friends, or for other purposes. 
They seem to feel, that every day they can con- 
trive to be absent during term-time, is just so 
much clear gain. 'I'hey cannot fail, however, 
to lose much, by the course they pursue. Let 
it be your fixed purpose, always, if possible, to be 
present at the commencement of a term, and 
never, if you can avoid it, be absent a single day, 
till its close. 



YOUNG STUDENT. 141 

4. Let me advise you, also, to make it a point 
of religious duty, never, if you can avoid it, 

TO NEGLECT A SINGLE PRESCRIBED EXERCISE. 

Many students are willing to avail themselves of 
the slightest pretext for evading an appointed ex- 
ercise. Be not guilty of such folly — to use the 
mildest term that can be applied to it. Especially 
would I urge you never to be absent, without 
some unavoidable necessity, from the morning 
and evening devotions of the Academy or Col- 
lege. Some students, who call themselves pious 
men, ought to be ashamed of their remissness in 
this respect. 

5. Be PUNCTUAL IN ALL YOUR ENGAGEMENTS. 

This is unquestionably a moral duty. To fail 
in punctuality, may not be so bad as utterly to 
disregard an engagement. But it is as really 
wrong in a moral sense. How can it be other- 
wise ? You engage, either directly or by impli- 
cation, to be in a certain place at a particular 
time. The time comes, and, through your own 
negligence, you are not present. You have thus 
violated a direct or implied promise. I see not 
how any one can do this habitually, who has any 
just sense of the sacredness of a promise. I 
know a want of punctuality is often accounted 



142 LETTERS TO A 

a mere trifle. You will see it, in a greater or 
less degree, in a majority of your associates. 
Some men, notorious for it, are appropriately 
styled, in common parlance, " afternoon-men." 
You will find many such at the Academy and 
in College. At prayers, at religious meetings, 
at church, at meetings for business, they are 
almost always a little too late. Business, secular 
or religious, in which they are concerned, must 
either be delayed, and thus the time of others be 
wasted ; or else it must be interrupted, when in 
progress, by their coming in at a late hour. Be 
not an '* afternoon-man." Let all who know 
you, feel that they can rely on any engagement 
which you make. You will thus ensure their 
confidence, prevent the waste of time, and ac- 
complish far more than you could otherwise do. 
Whatever you have to do at a particular hour — 
whether it be to attend a recitation, a devotional 
exercise, a religious meeting, or to perform a duty 
of any other kind, be in the appointed place at 
the appointed time. In a literary institution, 
where there are many exercises, all arranged in 
a systematic way, and one often following 
another in close succession, you cannot fail, by 
a habitual want of punctuality, often to put your- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 143 

self and others to great inconvenience. And 
on the habit of strict punctuality, your future 
usefulness will very much depend. To a minis- 
ter of the gospel, whose time is very precious, 
and in whom all should be able to repose the 
most entire confidence — whose example, more- 
over, has a powerful influence on the character 
of those around him — this habit is exceedingly 
important. Again, then, I say, let it be your 
daily care, to be punctual in all your engage- 
ments. 

6. Be ECONOMICAL IN ALL YOUR EXPENDI- 
TURES. You ought always to regard this as a 
duty, whatever your pecuniary circumstances 
may be. If you have more money than you 
need, there are innumerable objects of charity. 
*' Ye have the poor always with you ;" and the 
cause of Christ, at the present day, makes pecu- 
liarly large and pressing demands on the benevo- 
lence of his followers. When you are tempted 
to unnecessary expenditures, think how much 
good your money might do, if thrown into the 
treasury of the Lord. Never, perhaps, was 
money worth so much, as a means of promoting 
the cause of Christ, as at the present day. For 
the sake of economy, as well as for other reasons, 



144 LETTERS TO A 

avoid every thing which could justly be called 
extravagance in dress. Your apparel should be 
decent, such as becomes your circumstances in 
life ; but neither finical, nor immoderately ex- 
pensive. Let it be such, that a stranger whom, 
you should meet, would not be very likely to. 
remember what it was ; that is, let it neither be 
so strikingly mean, nor so obviously extravagant, 
as to make a strong impression on his mind. A 
more definite rule than this familiar one, can 
hardly be given. Good sense and Christian feel- 
ing must guide you in this matter. 

But while you aim at economy in all your 
expenditures, go not to the extreme of a nig- 
gardly spirit, in your dealings with others. Be 
always ready to bear your part of every expense, 
which may properly devolve on you in your con- 
nection with your fellow students. And I advise 
you never to deprive yourself of any important 
facilities for the prosecution of your studies, to 
save expense. If you really need a particular 
book, for instance, get it, if you can, whatever 
it may cost. You are now laying the foundation 
of your future usefulness. What your influence 
shall be for nearly half a century, should you 
live to the common age of man, depends very^ 



YOUNG STUDENT. 145 

much on your success in your course of study. 
It would be a miserable kind of economy, then, 
which, for the sake of saving a few dollars, 
should deprive you of any important means of 
intellectual improvement. " I paint for immor- 
tality," said an ancient artist. How unwise 
would he have been, if, to save a little expense, 
he had used so wretched a pencil, as to make an 
ill-looking daub instead of a master-piece. 

7. I have already made remarks at considera- 
ble length, on the subject of reading. Most of 
those remarks had respect to intellectual im- 
provement, though some of them are applicable 
to any kind of reading. I wish, in this connec- 
tion, to make a few suggestions with special 
reference to religious reading. 

(1.) Endeavor to be constantly increasing in 
religious knoioledge. Say not, I expect to study 
theology by and by, and need not meddle with 
religious doctrines now. Religious knowledge 
is not a merely professional thing. The prac- 
tice of religion is not, like the practice of law 
or of medicine, confined to a few. It is the 
proper business of all. And, of course, the 
great principles by which that practice should be 
regulated, all ought, in some measure, to under- 
13 



146 LETTERS TO A 

stand. These principles are contained in the 
doctrines of the Bible. Its precepts do but give 
the fundamental principles of religion, which the 
doctrines present, a practical form. Without 
some knowledge of the doctrines of religion, its 
precepts will neither be well understood, nor 
deeply felt. Now as the practice of religion be- 
longs to every stage of life, and to all possible 
circumstances, the doctrines of the Bible cannot 
be too early or too thoroughly studied, in just 
the way in which they are presented in the 
Bible — in connection with the precepts, which 
are founded upon them. In other words, you 
wish, now and always, to know what God re- 
quires of you. To know this, you must under- 
stand, in some measure, his character, and the 
relations you sustain to his government. To 
understand these things, you must understand 
the doctrines of the Bible. Further, if you be- 
come familiar with all the fundamental doctrines 
of religion before you enter a theological semi- 
nary, you will be much better prepared for your 
course of study there, than if you should com- 
mence it in almost utter ignorance of every thing 
beyond the mere rudiments of religious truth. I 
would by no means advise you to enter very ex- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 147 

tensively into the study of theology. For this 
you have not time. But you may do, you ought 
to do something at this, even during your course 
of academical study. I would advise you to 
make it a prominent object in your course of 
religious reading, to increase your knowledge of 
the doctrines of the Bible. The Bible is, of 
course, the best of all books for this purpose, 
and judicious commentaries are next in value. 
Doddridge, Scott, and Henry, will render you 
important aid in ascertaining the meaning of the 
Scriptures. It would be well, if circumstances 
permit, to have one of these authors in your pos- 
session. But remember in reading commenta- 
ries, as well as all other uninspired books, to 
think for yourself. 

(2.) Read a little, every day, in some hook of a 
highly devotional cast. I refer now to unin- 
spired books. The Bible, that best of all devo- 
tional books, I take it for granted, you daily 
read. And I would advise you to read a little 
daily in some such book as the Saints' Rest, 
Doddridge's Rise and Progress, Flavel on Keep- 
ing the Heart, and the Imitation of Christ, by 
Thomas a Kempis. I would that the last 
mentioned work were in the library of every 



148 LETTERS TO A 

pious student in Christendom. It is an admi- 
rable thing. I can think of hardly any unin- 
spired book so well calculated to promote devo- 
tional feeling as this. The translation by Payne 
is recommended no less by the elegant dress he 
has given to the thoughts of the author, than by 
the spirit of exalted piety which they breathe. — 
Let me remind you, in this connection, that 
your usefulness in your course of study, and in 
the gospel ministry, will depend more on the 
possession of a highly devotional spirit, than on 
any thing else. Fail not, then, to employ that 
very efficient means of promoting such a spirit, 
a judicious course of devotional reading. 

(3.) Include in your course of religious read- 
ing, some of the best biographical toorks. Read, 
as you can find leisure for it, the lives of Brai- 
nerd, Martyn, Mills, Buchanan, Parsons, Fiske, 
Pay son, and other eminent servants of Christ. 
As you fix your eye on their bright example, 
you will be likely to catch their heavenly spirit ; 
your soul, if indeed there be spiritual life in it, 
will burn with intense desire to walk in their 
footsteps — aye, to be like the Blessed One, of 
whom they were the humble followers. 

8. Be not puffed up with your attain- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 149 

MENTs. How disgusting is that vain-glorious 
spirit which young students frequently exhibit. 
They have read a little Latin, or have fairly 
mastered the Greek alphabet, or have seen their 
names, for the first time, in a college catalogue ; 
and they seem to fancy themselves the foremost 
men in the world. What airs will a young man 
sometimes assume, when he first becomes a col- 
legian. And when he reaches the dignified rank 
of a sophomore, how does his whole carriage 
denote the still higher estimate he forms of him- 
self You look on such things with utter dis- 
gust, when you see them in others. Be it your 
care, that others never behold them in you. 
You ought to regard yourself as a mere child in 
knowledge now. And whatever attainments 
you may make, you will still have reason to feel, 
that you know but little. Said Sir Isaac New- 
ton, not long before his death, " I do not know 
what I may appear to the world ; but to myself 
I seem to have been only like a boy playing on 
the sea shore, diverting myself in now and then 
finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell 
than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay 
all undiscovered before me." If you are ever 
inclined to be proud of your attainments, cast 
13* 



150 LETTERS TO A 

your e3^e over the vast field of knowledge, oti 
the very borders of which you have but just 
gained a footing. Think over how small a por- 
tion of that field you will ever be able to pass ; 
and learn not to think of yourself more highly 
than you ought. Remember, also, that you 
have nothing which you have not received of 
God ; and that pride is hateful in his sight. 
Think, too, of the example of him, Avho, though 
he possessed *' all the treasures of w isdom and 
knowledge," was yet *' meek and lowly in heart." 
9. Aim to BE COURTEOUS in all your social 
intercourse. To be a gentleman, in the best 
sense of the term, is far from being inconsistent 
with Christian character. Indeed, it is your 
duty, as a Christian, to aim at this. True po- 
liteness has been well said to be a delicate per- 
ception of the feelings of those around us, and a 
habitual regard for those feelings. It is, then, 
little more than a practical development, in social 
intercourse, of that spirit of kindness which the 
Bible enjoins. Nor is the Bible wanting in ex- 
amples of true politeness. What an exquisite 
specimen of this, did the patriarch Abraham 
give, as he bowed himself before the children of 
Heth, and communed with them about the pur- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 151 

chase of the cave of Machpelah. It should be 
recollected, however, that many of the forms of 
social intercourse are merely conventional mat- 
ters, and must be learned by intercourse with 
society. To these forms, it must be acknow- 
ledged, many good men are too much inclined to 
be inattentive. This might be justly deemed a 
small matter, if it had no connection with per- 
sonal influence. But such a connection it un- 
questionably has. Boorish habits in social inter- 
course, will greatly diminish the influence of any 
man. Determine to divest yourself of all such 
habits— to be, in the best sense of the word, a 
gentleman. Let it be really the desire of your 
heart, to make all around you happy. And be 
observant of the customs of society, and of the 
habits of those men, who are distinguished for 
suavity of manners. Be not a servile imitator; 
but be always ready to learn from any model of 
excellence in manners, which may meet your 
eye, how to correct your own faults, and supply 
your own deficiencies. 

10. In close connection with what I have just 
said, let me caution you against allowing your* 
self in any such habits of social intercourse, as 

to LOSE THE RESPECT OF YOUR ASSOCIATES. If 



152 LETTERS TO A 

they do not respect, they will hardly love you, 
and you will have little influence over them. 
You may lose their respect by being too much 
in their company ; and, especially, by too great 
familiarity with them. I would, by no means, 
encourage a cold repulsive reserve, in your inter- 
course with your acquaintances. To a certain 
extent, you ought to be familiar with them. But 
you cannot carry this beyond a certain point, 
without losing their respect. How far you may 
safely carry it, your own good sense must deter- 
mine. — There is one practice quite prevalent 
among students, which, though it may seem to 
you a trivial thing, is, I think, altogether incon- 
sistent with that degree of respect for each other 
which they ought carefully to cherish. I allude 
to the use of nicknames — not, as the original 
sense of the word implies, in an opprobrious, but 
rather in a familiar way — and to the abbreviation 
of proper names. In my own class in college, 
several were often called by the first syllable of 
their sirnames ; and the name of one, I well 
recollect, was, by one of his intimates at least, 
translated into Latin, by a novel and ludicrous 
composition of two simple words. Avoid every 
thing of this kind. It is perfectly proper for 



YOUNG STUDENT. 153 

mere boys — and not improper for young men, 
when in the habit of intimate and friendly inter- 
course — to call each other by their Christian 
names. But further than this, even intimate 
friends ought not, I think, to go. 

11. On the subject of visiting, I have a few 
suggestions to make. 

(1.) Guard against spending too much time in 
visiting the rooms of your felloiv students. To 
this, young men who love society, are very liable. 
Your business is chiefly at your own room. By 
diligence in study, and communion with God, 
make this a happy place. Let your maxim be, 

" Wisdom and pleasure dwell at home." 

Students who spend a large portion of their time 
in gadding about from room to room^ cannot 
make much progress in study. 

(2.) Do not visit your fellow students at im- 
proper hours. It is improper to visit them, un- 
less it is indispensably necessary, during study 
hours, or when you know them to be specially 
engaged. If you happen to call at the room of 
a fellow student, and have reason to believe that 
he would prefer not to receive company then, 
always retire. 



154 LETTERS TO A 

(3.) Be careful never to protract a visit at a 
student's room so as to interfere with any of his 
engagements. Indeed, visits among students, 
should almost always be short. It is seldom 
consistent with their various engagements, either 
to give or receive long visits. 

(4.) Spend but little time in visiting the peo- 
ple of the neighborhood. The little time you 
can spend in visiting, during term-time, ought 
to be chiefly devoted to your fellow students. 
Let visits of other kinds be, in general, reserved 
for your vacations. The student who is in the 
habit of making frequent calls on families in the 
neighborhood of the institution to which he be- 
longs, and often going out to evening parties, 
cannot fail to be a loser in respect to intellectual 
improvement. 

12. Be careful to maintain a strict proprie- 
ty OF DEPORTMENT AT YOUR BOARDING-HOUSE. 

The reputation of a student is affected more by the 
testimony of the family in which he boards, than 
some thoughtless young men are willing to be- 
lieve. Those who have intimate intercourse 
with him every day, will be very likely, men in 
general think with good reason, to know what 
he is ; and if they speak well of him, their tes- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 155 

timony has much weight. Besides, your board- 
ing-house is one of those places where you will 
be peculiarly liable to be off your guard, espe- 
cially if you feel yourself very much at home 
there. Look well, then, to all your intercourse 
with the family in which you board. Be punc- 
tual at your meals. Give them no unnecessary 
trouble in any respect. Be exceedingly cautious 
about finding fault with your food. Students 
are very apt to do this, when they might be much 
better employed. If your food is really not of a 
wholesome and comfortable kind, say as little 
about it as possible. And if you cannot obtain 
redress by mildly stating your grievances to the 
master or mistress of the family, take the first 
opportunity quietly to change your boarding- 
place. And be careful to do it in the way least 
calculated to wound the feelings, or injure the 
reputation of the family you leave. But I ad- 
vise you to take no such step, unless there are 
strong reasons for it. You cannot expect, in 
any boarding-house, always to find every thino- 
just as you would like to have it. Some little 
inconveniences and vexations you must expect 
occasionally to meet, in every situation. It is 
really inconsistent with that manliness of char- 



156 LETTERS TO A 

acter at which every student ought to aim — to 
say nothing of Christian principle — to be always 
fretting at every trifling inconvenience, and act- 
ing as if the main concern of life were to gratify 
the palate. I would make it as a general re- 
mark, in regard to your boarding-house, be not 
given to change. There are some advantages in 
continuing long in one place. It becomes at 
length a kind of home. And mutual attach- 
ments are thus formed, which are very pleasant, 
not to say profitable. — Allow me to add a word 
of advice in regard to your deportment at meals. 
Avoid every thing like coarseness of manners 
there. Be a gentleman at table as well as in 
every other situation. 

13. I would make a few suggestions in regard 
to your ROOM-xMATE. You ought to room with a 
Christian. In no case should I be willing to 
make an exception to this rule, save that of a stu- 
dent younger than yourself, who would be, in a 
great measure, under your influence. In your 
intercourse with your room-mate, be always ready 
in every way to promote his comfort and im- 
provement; and careful to avoid every thing 
which would wound his feelings, or injure him 
in any respect. You may sometimes have occa- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 157 

sion to exercise patience, and forbearance, and 
forgiveness, in your intercourse with him. See 
to it, if need be, that in all these virtues you 
abound. You know enough of human nature 
to understand, that whenever two or more per- 
sons are in the habit of intimate intercourse, 
they need to watch very carefully over their feel- 
ings towards each other. You will, I trust, es- 
teem it a privilege, to unite with your room- 
mate in prayer, morning and evening. I would 
recommend it as an excellent expedient to diver- 
sify your devotional exercises, and render them 
more intensely interesting to you, to assign to 
each day in the week, some special subject of 
social prayer. On Monday, for example, you 
might pray particularly for the benevolent enter- 
prizes of the day ; on Tuesday, for your absent 
friends ; on Wednesday, for your fellow stu- 
dents ; on Thursday, for the officers of the insti- 
tution to which you belong ; on Friday, for the 
churches of the land ; on Saturday, for ministers 
of the gospel ; on Sabbath day, for Sabbath 
schools ; or you might adopt any other plan 
which should seem best to you. — It would be 
highly advantageous to yourself and your room- 
mate, to enter into a mutual agreement, to point 
14 



158 LETTERS TO A 

out, in a friendly way, each other's faults. This 
agreement should extend to faults of every kind, 
those which pertain both to intellectual and 
moral character. 

14. Make Christians only your bosom 
FRIENDS. You will, I think, be very willing 
to comply with this advice, if your mind is 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit which led 
the Psalmist to say, " I am a companion of all 
them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy 
precepts." If your bosom friends are irreligious, 
they will be very likely to prove a snare to you. 
You can have little sympathy with them, except 
on worldly subjects ; and strong sympathy with 
worldly men, in regard to their favorite objects of 
pursuit, is very likely to seduce the heart from God. 

15. Scrupulously regard all the laws op 

THE institution TO WHICH YOU BELONG. Do nOt 

allow yourself even in what may seem trifling 
deviations from them. It is your duty to obey 
them all. In becoming a member of the insti- 
tution, you virtually promised so to do. And 
God will not hold you guiltless, if you disregard 
that promise. 

16. Maintain the utmost propriety of 

PPPORTMENT towards YOUR INSTRUCTERS, 



YOUNG STUDENT. 159 

Render a prompt and cheerfal obedience to all 
their requisitions. Treat them in an affectionate 
and respectful manner. You know not how 
heavy is the burden of care, and toil, and re- 
sponsibility which rests upon them. Do what 
you can to alleviate that burden. Let them see, 
that the solicitude they feel, and the efforts they 
make in your behalf, are repaid by feelings of 
filial regard, and a corresponding deportment. 
No matter if you are unable to see sufficient 
reasons for some of their measures and requi- 
sitions. Such reasons they may nevertheless 
have. And be that as it may, the path of your 
duty is, promptly and fully to submit to their 
authority. There is, in some students, a dispo- 
sition to find fault with their instructers, which 
deserves the severest reprehension. If some 
young men who profess to be Christians, would 
spend half the time in prayer for their instruc- 
ters, which they occupy with bitter complainings 
about them, it is probable that both instructers 
and pupils would become better men. Do not 
understand me to say, however, that you ought 
so to give up the direction of your mind to your 
instructers as not to think for yourself This 
you ought not to do. But 1 would urge you, 



160 LETTERS TO A 

while you think for yourself, to cherish an affec- 
tionate and obedient spirit towards your instruc- 
ters. 

17. Take special pains, through your whole 
course of study, to do good to the younger 

MEMBERS OF THE INSTITUTION TO WHICH YOU 

BELONG. You have, doubtless, some fellow stu- 
dents at the academy, and will probably have 
some class-mates at college, who are very young, 
considerably younger than yourself. Students 
of this description, are peculiarly liable to be led 
into improper courses. They are in danger 
from the thoughtlessness and inexperience of 
mere boyhood, combined with the native deprav- 
ity of the heart. And in almost every literary 
institution, there are some students — men of 
talents, it may be, and of fascinating manners, 
but, in moral character, " fellows of the baser 
sort" — who seem, with a kind of fiendish spirit, 
to delight in leading others into their own un- 
hallowed ways. To a man of such a character, 
a mere boy, unskilled in the ways of the world, 
and unsuspicious of danger, is an easy prey. O 
how many promising lads — the hope of their 
parents and instructers — have been ruined by 
the wiles of such men ! Now, pious students 



YOUMG STUDENT. {Ql 

may do much — far more than they usually do — 
to save yomig students from the dangers which 
cluster around them, and to lead them to the for- 
mation of good moral and intellectual habits. 
Take pains to gain the confidence of those 
younger members of the institution to which you 
belong, to whom, in the providence of God, you 
may have peculiarly favorable opportunities of 
access. The best way to do this, is to feel and 
manifest affection for them. Seize every oppor- 
tunity to evince your regard for them by offices 
of kindness. Sometimes invite them to your 
room ; sometimes visit them. Occasionally ask 
them to walk with you. Interest yourself in 
their studies. And, in other vi^ays, such as 
good sense will suggest to you, endeavor to gain 
their confidence. When this object is attained, 
make the most of your influence over them. 
The course I have marked out, will cost you 
some effort. But if God should, in any meas- 
ure, bless your labors of love — if you should 
succeed in saving but one fellow student from 
ruin, and leading him, in the bloom of boyhood, 
to the foot of the cross, and thus, perhaps, rais- 
ing up a herald of salvation — surely your heart 
would rejoice, and you would feel that your labors 
14* 



1(32 LETTERS TO A 

had been richly rewarded. And though efforts 
of the kind I have recommended, should fail to 
accomplish all you desire, be assured, they will 
not be lost. — At the academy, there are peculiar 
facilities for doing good in this way. The mere 
circumstance of seniority in age, is much more 
regarded than at college. But even at college, 
you may hope, by judicious and persevering 
efforts, to be the instrument of great good to 
some, at least, of tha younger class of your 
fellow students. 

!8. With one other topic I shall close this 
letter. Students sometimes feel in doubt about 
their duty in respect to. attending religious 

MEETINGS, AND MAKING OTHER EFFORTS TO 
PROMCiTE THE CAUSE OF ChRIST, IN THE VICIN- 
ITY of the institution to which they belong. In 
relation to this subject, I hesitate not to say, that 
most of your direct efforts to promote the salva- 
tion of souls, should be confined to the institu- 
tion of which you are a member. There such 
efforts are greatly needed. There Providence 
has cast your lot, and opened before you an im- 
portant and promising field of usefulness — a 
field in which you can surely find enough to do 
•^more, indeed, than you can possibly accom- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 163 

plish. Still, you will probably not do the less to 
save the souls of your fellow students, for mak- 
ing some exertion to promote the spiritual good 
of the people around you. There could be no 
objection, I think, should circumstances seem to 
favor it, to your attending a weekly religious 
meeting in some neighborhood not far from your 
boarding-house. Indeed, I deem it very desira- 
ble, that you should early accustom yourself to 
speak and pray in religious meetings. To speak 
often in such meetings, if you do it, as you 
always should ^ with thorough preparation, is, in 
my view, not only an efficient way of doing good 
at present, but an important means of fitting 
you for future usefulness. It is idle to think of 
excelling in any kind of public speaking, with- 
out a long course of training for it. And as 
speaking in public on religious subjects, is to be 
the main business of your life, you can hardly 
begin too early to exercise yourself in ^his way. 
In respect to religious visiting among the peo- 
ple around you, my advice is, that you do but 
little of it in term-time. My reasons for this 
advice you will easily gather from what I have 
already said. 



LETTER VII. 



COLLEGE LIFE. 



Caution against too great haste to enter college— Day of fasting and 
prayer before entering college — Ambition — Seeking popularity — 
Discountenancing insubordination and immorality — College dis- 
sensions—Prejudice against hard students — Teaching school dur- 
ing the college course — Vacations. 

My Dear Young Friend, — The lapse of 
time will soon bring you to the scenes of college 
life. Most of the counsels I have already given 
you, are applicable as well to those scenes, as- to 
your present stage of study. But I am unwilling 
to close this series of letters, without making a 
few suggestions with special reference to your 
college course. 

1. Be not in too great haste to enter 
college. Adopt not the erroneous notion, that 
your academial course is of little consequence. 



LETTERS TO A YOUNG STUDENT. 165 

and the sooner you finish it the better. Such a 
notion many students seem to entertain. They 
hurry onward as if their only object was just 
to get into college. They seem to regard an 
academial course, as a kind of ceremonial, 
necessary, indeed, as an arbitrary prerequisite 
to college membership, but of little use in 
any other respect. And, of course, they feel 
that the sooner it is despatched, the better. 
Now such views are altogether wrong. Let it 
be your object, in your present stage of study, to 
lay a deep and broad foundation for an education. 
And be. unwilling to enter college, till you have 
done this. You ought not to leave the academy, 
till you can readily construe every sentence, and 
promptly and accurately parse every word, in all 
the books which come within the prescribed 
course of preparation for college. And even 
more than this, it is desirable that you should do. 
To read two or three volumes of Latin and Greek 
at the academy, besides those which are required, 
would prepare you to prosecute your college 
studies to far greater advantage than you other- 
wise could. These volumes, however, should 
not be the same that are studied in college. 
Deem it not a waste of time to spend a year 
more at the academy than would be absolutely 



166 LETTERS TO A 

necessary to ensure your admission to college, it 
you cannot else make thorough work of your 
preparatory studies. If you look forward to pro- 
fessional life — your usefulness in the ministry 
will depend far more on your preparation for it, 
than on the number of years you spend in it. 
Be not in too great haste, then, to complete your 
academial course, so as to enter the sooner on 
the duties of professional life. 

2. I would advise you to spend a day, be- 
fore YOU ENTER COLLEGE, IN FASTING AND 
PRAYER, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO COL- 
LEGE LIFE. Enter into a strict examination of 
your academial course. Inquire wherein you 
have gone astray from the path of duty, and how 
you may in future amend your ways. 

" 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 
And ask them what report they bore to heaven, 
And how they might have borne more welcome news." 

And this is never more proper, than when you 
are making a transition from one stage of study 
to another. In view of the duties and dangers 
of college life, look up for help to Him, who 
alone can make you strong for every duty, and 
shield you from every danger. 

3. Guard against the temptations to ambition 



YOUNG STUDENT. 167 

which college life presents. Temptations of this 
kind you have to encounter in your present stage 
of study ; but in college they will greatly mul- 
tiply, and assume more attractive forms. They 
will steal upon your heart at every step of your 
college course. In intercourse with your fellow 
students, and even with your instructors ; in 
study, in recitation, in public declamation, in ex- 
hibitions, and commencement performances ; 
they will cast a spell over your spirit, which 
nothing but the grace of God can enable you to 
resist. I hardly need undertake to prove, that 
emulation is an unholy passion. Your own ex- 
perience may have taught you already — and if 
not, it probably will ere long — that the spirit of 
literary ambition, and the benevolence of the gos- 
pel, are at war with each other. I use the terms 
emulation and ambition synonymously — mean- 
ing by both the spirit of rivalry — the simple de- 
sire to outstrip others. Whenever you desire to 
bear away the palm of literary distinction from 
a fellow student, you do so prefer your own in- 
terest to his, as to violate the second great pre- 
cept of the law, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself" In the train of emulation follow 
pride, envy, hatred, and other unhallowed pas- 



168 LETTERS TO A 

sions, which often break out in evil speaking and 
strife. My own impression is, that hardly any 
thing has had so pernicious an influence on the 
religious character of pious members of college, 
as the spirit of ambition. Nothing, perhaps, has 
done so much to prevent the influence of divine 
truth on the impenitent in college, and to pro- 
duce every kind of moral evil there. Let me 
say to you, then, 

" I charge thee, fling away ambition." 



If you give it a place in your heart, it will gnaw, 
like a worm, at the root of your piety. It will 
wither every holy aflection. It will make your 
closet a gloomy place. It will make every reli- 
gious duty a burden. And if it be allowed to 
prevail in your heart during your college course, 
it will be very likely to go with you to the theo- 
logical seminary, and even into the holy ministry. 
Guard, then, against it, as you would enjoy 
peace of mind yourself, and do good to others. 
Whenever you detect it in your heart, strive to 
eradicate it. And look up to God for help. I 
would advise you to make any fellow student 
towards whom you are in peculiar danger of feel- 
ing a spirit of rivalry, a subject of prayer. Such 



YOUNG STUDENT. 169 

a spirit will be very likely to die away, as you 
endeavor to pour out your heart in his be- 
half at the throne of grace. And you will do 
well to say but little about college distinctions, 
and the comparative scholarship of students. 
The more you converse about these things, the 
greater is the danger, that your mind will be in- 
flamed with ambition. 

4. There is, in some students, a foolish and 
pernicious propensity to seek popularity in 
COLLEGE, which I would caution you to avoid. 
Many a young man has been willing to make 
great sacrifices — to sacrifice even his con- 
science — for the sake of being called a " fine 
fellow," by his college companions. Now what 
is commonly called popularity in college, is a 
very worthless thing. It is often a " mushroom 
popularity," — ''gained without merit, and lost 
without a crime." No where, perhaps, is popu- 
lar favor more mutable than in college. Go not 
out of your way, then, to seek it. If you 
should not thus defeat your own object, you 
would, at least, be likely to fall into a criminal 
worldliness of spirit. Go directly forward in the 
path of duty. Adhere to the strictest principles 
of integrity, and treat all your fellow students in 
15 



170 LETTERS TO A 

a kind and courteous way. By pursuing this 
course, you will " keep a conscience void of 
offence," and will be likely, at length, to gain the 
esteem of all whose good opinion is of much 
value. 

5. Set your face decidedly against every 
kind of insubordination and. immorality in 
COLLEGE. Many professors of religion fail to do 
this. Said a friend of mine, who became a 
Christian during the latter part of his college 
course — " Christians in college do not set their 
faces decidedly against immorality — they rather 
wink at it. In a thousand ways do the profli- 
gate receive indirect encouragement, even from 
Christians. I know, that during the two first 
years of my college life, I and my associates used 
frequently to remark, that we could discern no 
difference between ourselves and * theologians,' 
except that they went to meetings now and then. 
And, at that time, I would as willingly relate to 
a Christian my participation in a scene of dissi- 
pation, as to any other one ; for I never met 
reproof, and never was liable to exposure." — Let 
no fear of losing your popularity, or of being 
called a " faculty-man," or subjected to any 
other kind of reproach, prevent you from dis- 



YOUNG STUDENT. 171 

countenancing every kind of insubordination and 
immorality. Sustain the Faculty in all their 
efforts to enforce the college laws. Let the 
profligate understand, that vice cannot stalk 
fearlessly abroad beneath your eye. If you fail 
to pursue this course, the vicious may smile on 
you, but they will not really respect you. How 
can you take any other course, without disre- 
garding the best interests of your fellow students, 
the welfare of the institution to which you be- 
long, your obligation to your instructors, and 
what is of still greater moment, your duty to 
your God? 

6. Let me give you a few hints in regard to 

CLASS DISPUTES, AND OTHER COLLEGE FEUDS. 

In all such affairs, endeavor to be a peacemaker. 
Strive to bring about a reconciliation between 
contending parties. In respect to your own 
concern in college quarrels, 1 would say, bear in 
mind the excellent maxim, " leave off conten- 
tion before it be meddled with." I would not 
advise you, however, to shrink from taking a 
decided stand, so far, at least, as to give your 
vote, on any question which may come before 
your class, or the body of the students ; espe- 
cially if it be a question involving any impor- 



172 LETTERS TO A 

tant principles. But let me urge you to watch 
carefully over your own spirit, in all college dis- 
sensions in which you have any concern. Avoid, 
as far as possible, every thing calculated to exas- 
perate those who differ from you. Aim not to 
carry a point, but to do what is right. See to 
it, that you neither do nor say any thing in the 
least degree inconsistent with Christian charac- 
ter. Take no step, in any party matter, on 
which you cannot ask the blessing of God. And 
when you are engaged in any such matter, to 
keep your heart right, be much in secret prayer. 

7. Utterly disregard the prejudice against 
HARD STUDENTS, which prevails among a certain 
class in college. " He is always digging," or 
" he is altogether a made man," or " he is igno- 
rant of every thing but Greek roots," or " he is 
inordinately ambitious," or something else by 
way of disparagement, is often said of some 
very diligent student, by those who love not to 
study hard themselves, and who cannot endure 
such as do. Heed not such remarks. Resolve 
to be a hard student, and leave carping idlers to 
vent their spleen as they can. 

8. Many students spend some time during 
their college course in teaching school. I 



YOUNG STUDENT. 173 

advise you not to spend much time in this way. 
To teach school a few months, during your col- 
lege course, will, I doubt not, be an advantage 
to you. It will increase your knowledge of 
human nature, and promote manliness and deci- 
sion of character. But more than two or three 
months, you ought not, I think, to spend in this 
way, while a member of college, unless your pe- 
cuniary circumstances should render it indispen- 
sably necessary. And when you engage in 
teaching, let it be, if circumstances permit, for 
a vacation only. At all events, encroach as 
little as possible on term-time. 

9. As your college vacations will be of 
considerable length — longer than those in your 
present stage of study — it will be to you an 
important inquiry, How can I spend them in the 
most profitable manner? Make it a main object 
to spend them in such a way as to relax your 
mind, and reinvigorate your physical system. 
Do not pursue your ordinary studies during your 
vacations. This would not be consistent with 
the preservation of your health. You would, in 
the end, be every way a loser by it. You may, 
without detriment to your health, and with great 
intellectual profit, spend a part of each vacation 



174 LETTERS TO A YOUNG STUDENT. 

in reading. Finally, I would advise you to keep 
in view, during every vacation, the great object 
of doing good. You may, without imposing 
severe labors on yourself, do much, during each 
recess from study, to promote the cause of Christ. 
Keep this object distinctly in view, during your 
vacations ; and you will be likely to avoid the 
error of those who seem to feel, that a season of 
mental relaxation, is a time for mere self-indul- 
gence. 

In coming, now, to the close of this series of 
letters, I would commend what I have written 
to your attentive consideration, and to the bles- 
sing of Almighty God. Remember, my dear 
young friend, that the suggestions I have made 
will be of little service to you, unless you make 
a practical use of them. That you may do this, 
so far as they are really judicious, is my earnest 
prayer. And God grant, that your path may be 
that of the just, which is " as the shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day." 









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